Exactly the Same 'cept Different
by alycatvrl
Summary: When two alternate universes meet it is same old Beacon Hills. Some wolves are back from the dead and Scott is seeing double.
1. Prolouge

I don't own the amazing TV show that is Teen Wolf

O0o.o0O

Scott McCall stood, watching his very diverse pack setup for dinner in front of the newly reconstructed Hale House. It was the weekend before graduation and everybody wanted to spend as much time together as they could stand. The Pack only had the summer before everyone would scatter to their prospective colleges. They had all decided to live nearby; but it wouldn't be like living in the same town or going to the same high school.

The thoughts of never going to high school again led Scott to reminisce on just how much his life had actually changed since he and Stiles had started Beacon High. Nothing had turned out the way they'd imagined. He snorted at his own understatement. Hell, he was surprised they had even survived all the crazy shit that had happened to them. Kanimas, hunters, nogitsune, and psychotic alphas were just a few that sprung to his mind. The Pack had probably been blessed with some equally insane luck, as some sort of cosmic balancing act, to combat said crazy shit. One wrong turn and things could have turned out a whole lot differently.

Scott shook himself out of his darkening thoughts. Today was going to be a good day and he was going to bask in it. Plus, why jinx it.

The Pack had decided to move into the refurbished Hale House as soon as the school year ended. The running logical argument was that it would give their parents a taste of empty nest syndrome while the teenagers were still around to be appreciated. There were a lot of rolled eyes. It was also the perfect place to store all the stuff they couldn't bring with them to school. They were all going to move right back in, anyway, once they were finished.

Life was definitely going to be interesting with a full house. Derek insisted that packs usually lived together. He had told Scott that the pack he lived with in New York had even owned an entire apartment complex. So it really wasn't that different. It wasn't like they wouldn't have enough room. Hale House might as well have been a mansion. Everyone got their own rooms and everything.

Actually, that had been a sticking point. Each member got their own room out of necessity, not luxury. Sure, it was going to be crowded, but everybody deserved their own space. If Scott had learned one thing about having a pack full of teenagers; it was that no relationship was set in stone. He watched as Allison playfully flicked Isaac's nose with ranch. Nearby, it looked as though Jackson was trying really hard to win Lydia back from Aiden. If Lydia's flirting was anything to go by, he might even have a fighting chance.

O0o.o0O

Stiles was helping Malia carry out a ginormous rack of ribs. Who would have seen that relationship coming? He gave her a peck on the cheek and ambled over to Scott, "Whacha thinking?"

"Hmm?" Scott hummed, still lost in thought, "Nothing… Do you remember way back when?"

"Let's see," Stiles put on his intense concentration face (which made Scott think Stiles may have been constipated) and started stroking his nonexistent goatee, "Well, we started kindergarten a little over 13 years ago. If I recall, you were quiet fond of paste… or was that me?"

"No, dude. I mean the whole werewolf thing?" Scott corrected.

"Oh. How could I forget!" Stiles poked an accusing finger at his best friend, "You started acting all freaky and wouldn't tell me what was up."

"Yeah, after_ you_ talked me into looking for Laura Hale's body. In the middle of the night. In the freaking woods. On a full moon." Scott argued. "And then Peter _bit_ me!"

"But we _did_ find the body," Stiles pointed out.

Scott's reply was a bit exasperated, "And accidentally got Derek arrested, on purpose."

"Ahh, good times." Stiles grinned.

Scott frowned at his best friend in disapproval. But he couldn't keep it up long, as a giggle escaped him at the absurdity of it all. That set Stiles off. They laughed so hard that they had to hold on to each other to keep from falling over. The Pack, used to it, ignored the two weirdos; but they were all sporting grins of their own. Amusement was contagious and if their alpha was that relaxed, then everything must be AOK.

Scott sobered, "You know, if you hadn't talked me into going out that night, none of us would be here right now enjoying this."

Stiles wiped away a tear from laughing so hard. "Ironic, huh?"

"Yeah," Scott agreed.

"Nothing like a dead body to bring a family together." Stiles commented off-handily, not realizing that his filter had failed yet again.

Scott stared at his best friend. Stile, whose brain had caught up to his mouth, just stared back until the silence became uncomfortable. "Dude, morbid much." Scott finally said as the Yukimuras pulled up. He left Stiles standing there in favor of greeting his girlfriend, Kira.

O0o.o0O

Long shadows stretched across the table as the afternoon wore on, the sunset turning the oaks a pretty golden hue. Diner was winding down and the Pack was slipping into a good food coma. The conversation was subdued but companionable.

Then, there was a loud crack and a flash of light. The Pack was on their feet and in defensive positions within seconds. Scott would have been proud of them if he wasn't so focused on the unexpected distraction happening a few feet away.

Three people were suddenly standing in front of the Hale House. A man, bearing a striking resemblance to Stiles, let out a startled, "Da'fuck just happened?"


	2. Chapter 1: Fun House Mirrors

I do not own Teen Wolf.

O0o.o0O

Scott had known it was too much to ask for just one normal, lazy summer. Oh no, things had been _too_ perfect. Oh course, that was normally when strange things started to occur in Beacon Hills. He really should have known better. Now, they had to deal with uninvited dinner guests.

Said guests were all werewolves. Scott could immediately smell that, among other things. For one, the strangers reeked of confusion. Obviously, they didn't cause the magical fireworks. At least, not intentionally.

The second scent Scott got off them was the sharp tang of blood. They were covered in it. Despite the other pack's defensive posture, they were all in a bad way. The trio was sporting some serious wounds and one of the women looked on the verge of collapse. Melissa was hovering worriedly behind Scott, anxiously waiting for his "all clear" to rush to them.

The wary stalemate was broken by Derek's disbelieving, "Laura?"

"Derek?" Laura sounded just as distraught, yet hopeful.

"Well damn," The Stiles-look-a-like said, "Now doesn't that just bring up a butt load of questions?" Scott couldn't help but agree.

O0o.o0O

Everyone had moved into the house. Melissa had wanted her new patients somewhere a little more sterile than the middle of a nature preserve. The rest of the Pack, not wanting to miss anything, had followed along.

Laura and Derek were off in a corner, probably having a huge heart-to-heart, Melissa was working on the other chick, and Scott was listening to Stiles, both of them. They were facing each other and doing the exact same thing. "This is so surreal-" One started. "-it's like looking in a fun house mirror." The other finished.

"Tell me about it." Scott replied watching his …best friends? Despite what they had just said, they weren't mirror images. They would move the same side of their body at the same time so they didn't quite match up. There was something very wrong with the visual and it was just a bit off-putting.

Scott was also amazed at how different the two Stiles looked. They were the same person, so all the big things were the same. It was the details, though, that told a different story. The Stiles-doppelganger was a little bulkier, quieter, and all around darker. He was speckled in scars and his eyes were infinitely sadder. That Stiles was a soldier. He, no doubt, had fought and lost people close to himself. Scott almost didn't want to ask.

"So, you're a werewolf?" His Stiles beat Scott to the punch. Not quite the question the alpha had been fearing.

Not-Stiles gave him a "duh" look then asked in the same tone, "So what are you? An Emissary?"

"Wait, that's an option? You don't have to, like, be born one?" Stiles, the normal version, asked. He was practically bouncing in excitement at the prospect.

"Sure, Danny was getting pretty good at it." Other-Stiles assured Normal-Stiles. Uhg, this was getting confusing fast.

Scott seized on a part of what he said, "Was?"

"Yeah," Not-stiles conceded, closing in on himself.

Scott squeezed his eyes shut. The other Ethan must have been torn up by his boyfriend's death. The Pack tried hard to keep the humans protected. They were just so squishy. But shit happens and they can't stay locked up forever just because of "safety".

"What happened?" Normal-Stiles asked, sensing his counterpart's pain.

"He became a nogitsune." Not-Stiles answered as if that explained everything.

Now Scott was confused. Like he wasn't already. "Wait, you weren't it?"

The other Stiles frowned at him, but it was his Stiles who answered. "You can't be a werewolf and a nogitsune at the same time."

"How did_ you_ survive?" Not-Stiles asked Normal-Stiles. If anything the werewolf seemed even more distressed.

"Scott, here, tried giving the old fox the Bite." Normal-Stiles informed his other self, "We caught him in firefly form and put him somewhere safe."

"Why?" Scott asked, his suspicions growing, "How did you defeat him?"

"Allison's last act was to shoot him with a silver arrow. It gave Noshiko the chance to behead him. We buried Danny beneath the Nemeton after we bound him with the triskelion." Not-Stiles looked down at his hands, "I can't believe we could have saved him."

Scott was in some inner turmoil of his own. Allison had died too? Scott wasn't sure what he would have done if he had to live through that. They weren't dating anymore, but she was still one of his best friends and his first love.

"So how _did _you become a wolf?" Scott refocused on the conversation because he was curious too. His Stiles' non sequiturs had ceased to faze him. He had learned, over the years to live with his best friend's ADHD and just go with it.

The change in topic seemed to catch the other Stiles off guard, though. His expression suddenly completely shut down. "Did Peter ever offer you a choice?" Not-Stiles asked Normal-Stiles in a completely monotone voice.

His Style's groaned, "You didn't say yes!"

"No. I didn't," Not styles growled out, "Peter turned me anyway."

Scott's hackles rose in response to the other man's wolf lurking just below the surface. The room was plunged into a dead quiet as the Pack sensed the conflict. Scott moved, putting himself between the two Stiles. The human was at his back as he faced the threat, turning his alpha stare on the Twilight Zone version of his friend.

Bizaro-Stiles defiantly met Scott's gaze and unflinchingly held it. Laura seemed to be there in a heartbeat. She squeezed her pack-mate's shoulder till her knuckles turned white. Her Stiles was challenging an unknown alpha in front of his pack. The other wolves were just as tense, waiting for said alpha's direction.

"That bastard!" Scott whipped around to stare at his best friend in surprise. His Stiles was just as pissed as the other. There was a bark of laughter. Scott swore he had given himself whiplash. His neck creaked from turning so quickly in one direction to the other.

"I dealt with it." Not-Stiles assured his double. It didn't take a werewolf to know that was a lie. Oddly enough, his heartbeat didn't stutter.

There was a cough that sounded a heck of a lot like "bull-shit" from Jackson's corner of the room. Scott narrowed his eyes but kept them glued to the Other-Stiles. He was trying to gauge if the comment would set him off again.

Laura misread the look, "Stilinski doesn't do to well with authority." She defended then submissively dropped her gaze to the floor when Scott turned to her. From what he'd heard about the woman, that didn't seem right at all. Not-Stiles snorted.

"I wouldn't either if Peter was my alpha." Normal-Stiles remarked. The room gasped.

Once again, leave it to Stiles to pick up on something that Scott had totally missed. He desperately tried to go back over the conversation, looking for the clues that had led his Stiles to this interesting realization. He felt dumb for asking, "Wait, Laura's not your alpha?" Her eyes flicked up to search his face. She looked a little shocked herself.

"Was Laura _your_ alpha?" Not-Stiles asked dangerously, "Peter didn't bite you?"

"Yeah. I mean no." Scott was flustered, "I mean no, then yes." He gestured from one side to the other as if lining up his answers. He was spending too much time with his Stiles.

"Scott, Peter never killed Laura in their time line." Lydia told Scott then paused. She waited for him to work it out for himself.

"What does that have to do with me being an alpha?" Laura was just as confused as Scott was.

"You don't seem very surprised that Peter killed you here?" Erica piped up, standing next to Boyd.

"Derek is here and I am not," Laura told Erica earnestly, "I assumed he thought I was responsible for the fire." Scott was ignoring the interchange in favor of puzzling the rest out. He was almost there.

"Oh." It looked like Laura had figured it out at the same time Scott had.

Scott thought out loud, "Their Peter inherited the title right after the fire."

"Peter did that? To me?" Now Laura was devastated. She sat down and the other Stiles looped an arm around her in support. Scott briefly eyed them, wondering if there was something going on between the two.

"Can someone share with the rest of the class?" Isaac asked. This made Scott feel a little better for not getting it right away.

"Peter killed Laura to become the alpha." Derek informed him. Braeden stroked his arm, trying to comfort the man.

"So, their Peter killed Derek in the other universe?" asked Liam, trying to understand it all. The Pack paused to take that in. Melissa used this time to go back to fixing a bandage around Laura's midsection.

"Why are you OK with that?" Cora accused Laura.

Laura looked her in the eye and matter-of-factly told her, "There are consequences for everything we do." Cora bristled and Derek flinched as if he had just been slapped. Seeing this Laura's demeanor changed. "No, Der, I didn't mean it like that. I just told you that I don't blame you for what happened. You were young and you couldn't have known what Kate was going to do." She apologized to him, and then said, "But, you did kill Peter the first time around." Cora didn't seem impressed by this answer. However, a good majority of pack was nodding, including Scott.

"Hold up, hold up, hold up. Rewind." Kira burst out, "Derek killed Peter the first time?" A few people appeared to be as stumped as she was.

"Yup," Normal-Stiles popped the p, confirming from his seat beside Scott.

"All-righty then, just checking." Kira sat back down. She was shaking her head as if asking why she questioned the madness that was Beacon Hills.

"Umm…" Mason shyly asked, "What?"

Allison sighed then summarized, "Peter was killing people. He bit Lydia. We decided to stop him. Derek killed him and became alpha. He gave the Bite to Isaac, Erica, Boyd, and Jackson. Then Lydia brought Peter back from the dead with her freaky Banshee powers."

"Hey!" Lydia pretended to take offence.

"Lydia's a Banshee?" the other Stiles questioned.

"Hi." Lydia waved. Not-Stiles just sadly stared back at her.

"Guess you still haven't figured that one out?" Aiden sounded rather smug.

"We didn't really have an opportunity." Not-Stiles confirmed. He looked away from the couple.

Laura picked up the thread where he left off, "After the thing with Peter, Lydia wandered into the forest and she never came out." Those that remembered Lydia's sabbatical in the woods paled. Not her too, Scott thought to himself, the alternate dimension must be a really sucky place to live.

"How did you deal with the Kanima then?" Danny asked, because, of course, his best friend had filled him in on that episode.

"We put it down." The other Stiles shrugged glancing at Jackson, who was pretty green by this point.

"Dude." Normal-Stiles said in shock at his alternate's cold reply. The Pack seemed to have more questions but they were all too afraid to ask. There was an unspoken agreement to drop the subject. The room returned to its previous buzz as new conversations started.

Melissa had finally moved to check on the head wound the Stiles doppelganger was wearing. He watched her as she worked. "Umm, can I ask you something?"

Normal-Stiles popped out with, "You just did."

They both ignored him. Melissa smiled at her patient and said kindly, "Of course you can, Sweetheart."

The other Stiles choked up but eventually got out, "Can I hug you?"

Melissa was already tearing up and nodded. Not-Stiles didn't waste any time in pulling her into an impressively long hug.

Scott was reeling. There was only one conclusion Scott could come to at the awkwardly touching situation in front of him. How on earth could the other-him let his mom die? It was impossible to think about. He tried to imagine what life would be like without her, but he just couldn't wrap his mind around it.

They broke apart. Bizaro-Stiles used the heel of his palms to wipe away his tears. "I want you to know that you've always been like a mom to me and I'm sure my other self feels the same." He said gesturing to his counterpart, "I know you aren't her; but I still want to apologize for not stopping the Darach in time. For not being able save you." His voice was raw with emotion.

Melissa fanned her eyes to stop from crying again, "I'm sure," She had to stop to choke down a sob of her own, "I'm sure if your Melissa is anything like me, she would never blame you." Melissa busied herself again with bandaging his cuts, "You are a thousand times forgiven."

It was all very sentimental but Scott couldn't appreciate it. That was too intense for him. He had had one too many shocks that day. In another life, he had failed to protect his pack and they had been decimated. The alpha in him was having some definite problems with that concept. He had to get some fresh air. He had just started to stand up when Sheriff Stilinski opened the door.

The sheriff was looking down at a receipt as he walked in. He absentmindedly said, "I hope everyone saved room for cheesecake. Do you realize you left the food-" His eyes landed on the very injured version of his son.

The stunned werewolf whispered, "Dad."


	3. Chapter 2: Damage Control

Normal-Stiles jumped up trying to perform his own patented brand of damage control, "Look Dad, I have an evil twin."

The Sheriff looked between the two a few times then settled on his son, "What. Did. You. Do?"

"Why do you automatically assume I did something?" Normal-Stiles whined.

"Stiles!" They both flinched. The sheriff rubbed his forehead as if he had suddenly developed a migraine. He probably had.

Stiles opened and closed his mouth (doing a very good impression of a fish) trying to figure out the best way to answer. Malia came to his rescue, "You see, Sudo-Stiles, comes from and alternate reality where everything totally sucks. Well, except he's a werewolf and Laura Hale is alive. Not anymore, because they're here and not there. So that dimension still sucks. Oh, and apparently everyone there is dead." The girl had obviously been taking lessons on rambling explanations from her boyfriend. She added as an afterthought, "Sir."

Sheriff Stilinski held up his hand to stop her, his eyes closed, "Let me get this straight. Laura Hale is alive, that would be you?" He asked pointing toward Laura. She nodded in affirmation. He pointed to his not-quite-son, "And you're a werewolf?" Another nod. The sheriff continued, "And the two of you are from an alternate dimension?"

"And Lexie," Ethan piped from the back of the room, gesturing at the passed out girl lying beside him.

"Fine," the Sheriff grunted, "The three of you come from a dimension where everyone on Earth is dead?"

"No." That was Laura.

"No?" The wolves quaked under his questioning glare. Sheriff Stilinski would have made one heck of an alpha.

"Just the important ones." That time Not-Stiles answered.

"Who?"

"Uh… the Pack." Laura hesitated. The Pack cringed, well if that wasn't everybody's worst fears confirmed.

"So everyone in this room?" The sheriff was taking this rather well.

"No." Back to the other Stiles.

"No?"

"Just mostly." Still Not-Stiles.

"Mostly?" It was like watching a tennis match, where the pair from the alternate reality was playing doubles against the sheriff.

"Yeah," Laura told him, looking around the room, "I don't recognize her, them, or her." She said as she pointed to Malia, Liam, Mason, and a surprised Cora. She went on, "The Yukimuras left town after Kira died, so I don't know if they were killed too." The Yukimuras did not seem too happy about that revelation and held their daughter close to them.

"Oh, and me," The other Stiles added.

"Ok," the sheriff summed up simply. "So the Pack is mostly dead and you three magically appeared here."

Everybody was nodding. Someone even said, "With a flash and a bang!"

"Yeah, Dad," Normal-Stiles clapped him on the back, "I think that about covers it."

"One question." Sheriff Stilinski scratched his head, "How?"

"Good question, Dad." The Normal-Stiles congratulated his dad. He looked around at the gathered pack, waiting hopefully.

When no answer was forthcoming, Scott gathered up his courage enough to be blunt, "We don't exactly know."

"Ah-huh," was the sheriff's only comment.

"Has anyone seen Peter?" Derek asked the room at large. The Pack shook their heads, all coming to the conclusion that the missing werewolf was somehow responsible.

Scott growled. He still hadn't cooled off from his earlier emotional roller coaster and Peter wasn't his favorite pack-member. No one really liked the man but no one openly hated him, except maybe Lydia. He wasn't even grudgingly a member of the Pack. Scott didn't care enough to begrudge him anything. Usually, Peter stuck close to the sidelines, occasionally proving himself useful. The only reason he had become a part of the pack was because he'd stuck around and hadn't called any attention to himself. Scott wasn't particularly happy with Peter at that moment, though.

The Pack was picking up on his anger and starting to wolf out too. Scott took a few deep breaths, trying to reign in his temper. Besides, they didn't know anything for sure. It was all conjecture and circumstantial evidence. Who said you couldn't learn anything from TV; go Law and Order. Peter deserved the benefit of the doubt.

As Scott calmed, so did his pack. He figured it was time for action. "Derek," the man tensed at the command in his alpha's voice, "find him. Take back-up." Cora and Braeden stood with him. Scott didn't trust either woman very much. He jerked his head for Boyd to follow them. Where Boyd went, so did Erica. It had been that way since they were captured by the alphas. Who knew constant mortal peril was such a great bonding tool. "Isaac."

"Deaton?" Isaac knew his alpha well.

"Deaton." Scott affirmed, "Tell him to bring his med kit; he might as well find out what's wrong with… Lexie." He said trying to remember the girl's name.

Allison got up to go with him. "Actually Allison," They both stopped. "Could you do me a favor?" The Hunter was a little disgruntled with her ex; but she nodded once in consent. "Jackson," Scott called over his shoulder, "go with Isaac." They both left to collect the vet and Allison was even more frustrated that Scott hadn't gotten on with his request. "Could you take Danny, Lydia, and Malia to do research?"

Malia asked, a little awkwardly, "What am I gonna do? If you haven't realized; I'm not really the researching type."

"A second set of eyes never hurt anything." Malia, understanding flashing in her eyes, caught Scott's subtle hint. He trusted her to watch out for the more human element of the pack. She gracefully submitted to her alpha's orders and went with them.

"I'll check if other hunters have heard of anything like this." Chris spoke as he followed in his daughters wake.

The Yukimuras stood as well. "We'll check our own sources for information." Ken paused long enough in his exit to tell Scott.

"Ethan. Aiden. Why don't you check in with the supernatural community?" Scott asked.

"Is that a suggestion or an order?" Aiden snarked back.

"Excuse him," Ethan told Scott, "He gets fussy when he stays up past his bed time." As he ran to catch up with his twin, Scott heard him sigh, "It's going to be a long night."

Normal-Stiles couldn't help his commentary, "Ever notice Lydia always goes out with total douches."

"I don't know," remarked Scott, "Jackson's been decent since he got back from London."

"What do you want me to do?" Liam asked Scott excitedly.

"I think it's time for you and Brett to take Mason and Lori home." Scott told the youngest members of the pack. The puppies drooped in total disappointment so he said, "After that you can see if you can find Ms. Morell."

"Why Ms. Morell?" Brett queried his new alpha.

Scott cracked up at their faces when he jokingly told them, "She's a witch."

O0o.o0O

The room was significantly bigger with so few people left. The atmosphere had changed too. It wasn't as inviting and it was more than a little hostile. Even Melissa was uncomfortable, "I'm going to go bring in the food before we get wild animals. Uh, the kind that doesn't live here… I'm going to go now." She stumbled over words in a spectacularly Stile-like way.

"I'll go with you," Sheriff Stilinski volunteered.

"So, what now?" Kira asked, unsure why she hadn't been given a task. She was kind of stranded there without her parents anyway.

Normal-Stiles almost face planted as he randomly ran from the room. Scott marveled, not for the first time, at his best friend's ability to survive his own uncoordinated nature. That was another disturbing difference between this world's Stile and the other. Not-Stiles stood and stretched with the predatory grace gifted by the Bite.

"I suppose we talk." The other Stiles addressed Kira, but was really talking to Scott. Scott didn't trust the strange man that seemed so familiar. He knew he wouldn't underestimate the man either. The werewolf combined Stiles' quick mind with battle harden instincts. And he had some obvious anger issues to boot. Laura was a virtual unknown. In fact the only thing anyone knew about the trio was what the two wolfs had told them. While they hadn't lied the whole night, Scott wasn't going to take them at face value. Werewolf hearing couldn't detect technicalities, omissions, or half-truths.

Not-Stiles was still pacing as he talked. Habits must transcend dimensions. Scott's Stiles did the same thing to help him think through a problem. "I'm impressed Scotty," The nick-name set Scott's teeth on edge; it wasn't being used for the sake of affection, but to make a distinction. He was being distanced from another, lost Scott. Not Stiles continued,"You handled the inclusion of a wolf to Allison's group with surprising tact. She wouldn't have taken the implied need for help well. Using the buddy system so that everyone would have back up was a nice touch, too."

"We're never lucky enough that it's just one problem at a time." Scott explained, not taking his eyes off of the doppelganger. He was counting on Kira to keep an eye on Laura.

"I know the feeling." Not-Stiles gave a slightly bitter laugh. "So why give the pups a mission then?"

"Liam and Brett will make sure Lori and Mason get home safely and they might actually be able to get ahold of Morell. Otherwise, they'd all be out getting into trouble. They're too much like us." The other Stiles cocked his head in askance. "Like when we went out to the woods to find a body on the full moon." Scott offered.

"We never did that in my world." Duh, Scott thought, there was no body to find in that world. "I presume this was before you got your Bite. We were always too busy on full moons after that." Not-Stiles was shaking his head at their stupidity, "I think my dad would've killed me for interfering in a case. I could never see my Scott running around the woods; he always had problems with his asthma there. You didn't have asthma?"

"No, I did. My Stiles actually convinced me to go that night. It was the night that Peter bit me." Laura tensed, probably realizing that it was her body Scott had gone to find. "How did the other me get the Bite?"

The other Styles laughed again, "After Scott and I failed to make the team; I started picking up hours with Deaton. The time we didn't spend working, we volunteered. I wasn't there with Scott the day he volunteered at Peter's ward. Apparently, you had traits that called out to his wolf and woke him up. The next thing we know, he's dating Melissa and helping my Scott through the transition."

Scott shuddered at the thought of his mom going out with the psycho. "You didn't mind the murders?" He supposed they might not have known, even as he accused.

"They deserved to die." Laura gritted out. Scott felt sick, Peter must have brainwashed them. "They helped cover up my family's murder."

"What about the ones before that?" Scott glared at her in disgust. The effect was immediate. Laura laid out along the ottoman, she had been sitting on, bearing her neck to him.

Not-Stiles stood still and informed him, "Peter never harmed an innocent person. They all admitted to guilt and none of them were under duress when they said it. No one lied. Their deaths were all quick and painless. Peter did a lot of investigation. The only one who never admitted it was Derek. He knew Peter was going to come for him so he challenged him and won. That was that." Scott couldn't believe Stiles, any version, was defending Peter Hale.

Kira asked Stiles, "How did Derek know, Peter was going to come for him."

Stiles looked at her sadly, "He turned me." Scott wasn't sure if he liked the way Not-Stiles looked at her when he explained, "An alpha needs a power base of at least three. He had me, he no longer needed Derek."

"You recognized Erica, Boyd and Isaac." Scott said, remembering the bomb shell Laura let drop earlier.

"We weren't too fond of Derek after that. He needed a loyal power base." Laura told Scott, "We supported Peter when he came back, but he wasn't our alpha. When Peter won against Derek he got those three too. We hadn't known what Derek had done to Jackson."

"What happened to them?" Scott asked.

"Erica and Boyd ran away after Peter came back, they couldn't handle taking orders from someone who had killed their alpha. Ironic huh?" Not-Stiles said, unknowingly echoing what Scott's Stiles had said earlier. "The alpha pack kidnapped them. Isaac was kidnapped too when he went looking for them. Braeden died getting Isaac out."

"I wouldn't be too sure of that." Scott commented.

"What do you mean?" Laura questioned.

"We thought we saw her die too rescuing Isaac." Scott said letting them think on that for a minute, "So I assume you went looking for them like we did?"

"Yeah but we were too late," Stiles agreed.

Laura growled, "We made them pay." Scott realized he never wanted to seriously be on her bad side.

"We systematically took them out one by one, as a pack." Stiles elaborated.

"How can you allow two of them in the pack?" Laura fumed referring to the twins.

"Laura!" Stiles warned, "It's a lot easier to forgive someone when they haven't killed your family." Scott figured that was probably true.

"You haven't said what happened to Isaac." Kira pointed out.

They both looked upset. Laura wiped her eyes, "We just lost him."

"That's not true. We lost him a while ago. He hasn't… hadn't been the same since Allison's death." Stiles bit out Allison's name.

"He lost too many people. His mom, brother, bastard father, Derek-" Laura started but Stiles took over, "Erica, Boyd, Allison, Danny, Kira, Chris, Melissa. He was just going through the motions at the end. Hunters got him."

Scott noticed his name was missing from the lineup of the dead. But before he could bring it up, his Stiles burst into the room, "I have a jar of dust," He cried happily, showing off his jar of mountain ash. Not-Stiles quirked an eyebrow at his alternate self. "It took forever to find it in all the boxes."

"If you don't mind, would sit by your unconscious friend?" Scott asked the two other wolves politely. He was glad his Stiles had read his mind. He had started to worry, though, when it took so long. Scott had all the trust in the world for his oldest friend; but occasionally the ADHD would kick in and Styles would get distracted.

Laura seemed unhappy but Not-Stiles pleasantly said, "Of course," He was the one speaking for their pack. "I would do the same thing if I were in your shoes." They sat on the couch on either side of Lexie. Scott hoped Deaton would get there soon; she was in a sweat and shivering. Normal-Stiles hummed as he poured the ash in the most lopsided circle ever. Scott was glad they had decided to go with wood floors otherwise that would have been one ugly stain. Scott grinned fondly at the closest thing he had to a brother.

"Is it safe to come in?" Melissa and the Sheriff popped their head out the kitchen door. They must have come in through the porch.

"We're setting up the barrier now." Scott pointed at Stiles.

"No," She corrected walking into the room, "Are you done with the life altering truths?"

Scott scratched his head, "I don't know. For now at least."

Melissa had two paper plates of food in her hands. She offered them to the two other young people. She was such a mom, Scott thought, amused. They fell on the food like, well, a pack of wolves.

Melissa took a glance at Lexie and ran off to get throw blankets. She handed them over to the other pack, ever careful of the ash squiggle. "Make sure to wrap her up. I think she might be going into shock." They did as Melissa ordered.

"What do you think caused your unexpected travel plans?" The sheriff questioned.

"We were kind of busy with other problem at the time. So your guess is as good as ours." Not-Stiles shrugged.

"What other problems?" Kira asked. The small group was curious as to what had caused their wounds.

"If you want to know," everyone nodded, "We just spent the last month running from hunters and all sorts of other assassins. Some dick took out bounties on us and Peter's been missing for like a week." The dead pool flashed across Scott's mind.

"Isaac thinks- thought an assassin got him." Laura supplied, "Lexie thinks that Peter abandoned us."

"Wouldn't happen, not in a million years!" Not-Stiles defended, "We're his pack." Sheriff Stilinski looked just as shocked as Scott felt earlier.

Normal-Stiles on the other hand was sputtering. "Face it, man, the asshole left you swinging in the breeze."

"Shut your face," snarled Bizaro-Stiles, "You don't know him."

"Oh yeah," Normal-Stiles said getting worked up too, "How do you know he isn't a total dick behind that mask?"

"Because he adopted us!" Shouted a much fuzzier Not-Stiles. The room was silent at the outburst. Not that it was particularly difficult in a huge room with only eight people in it and one of them wasn't even awake.

"That was one of those truths I was worried about." Melissa chimed, knowing she would have stopped the adoption if she had been able to do so.

Scott understood. It wasn't so much that the other Stiles believed in the man, it was he couldn't bear to lose another parent. Scott felt he had seen something a little too personal. He didn't want to pity this cold person; he didn't want him to be real or human. That would make it easier to see his friend in there. His best friend warped by pain.

This made Scott remember what his Stiles had said at the motel where he'd nearly killed himself. Stiles was his brother, someone worth going through fire for. Scott had been so low at the time from all the death around him. The other Stiles had survived more loss than Scott had by that point. Heck, there was no comparison, and Scott had never lost anyone truly close. He briefly wondered if they had shared a similar conversation in the other life.

Laura was hugging Not-Stiles, trying to give him comfort. "I'm sorry." Normal-Stiles apologized, "I had no right to comment. If dad was missing I would spend every waking moment looking for him. Not being able to go find him would drive me insane." They both looked towards, Sheriff Stilinski. The way the werewolf had looked at Melissa was nothing compared to how he looked at his not-quite-father. There was definitely sorrow there and whole lot that was left unsaid. The Sheriff stepped on the barrier, breaking it, and wrapped the younger man in a hug.

"Group hug," Normal-Stiles called and Scott was surprised to find himself also hugging this stranger. Werewolves were a tactile bunch but it usually only related to family, the Pack. His wolf must have recognized the other Stiles as kin. Well if his wolf had claimed them, as an alpha Scott had no choice but to help now. First he'd have to do something about calling him Not-Stiles.

"So Twinsy, what do we call each other?" Stiles said breaking away from the hug. Way to ask what was on everyone's mind, Scott silently cheered. "In my head I keep referring to you as Not-Me." Stiles admitted. Scott was amused at how similar they both thought.

"Yeah," the other Stiles was still unabashed, crying as he untangled himself from everyone. Scott was a little amazed that everyone had jumped into the impromptu hug-fest. "I keep thinking of you as Other-Me." He sniffled, "Well, I guess you can call me Genim. It's what Peter calls me, I've gotten used to it. Unless you want it."

"No!" The sheriff frowned at his son, as the boy went on, "I don't even want anyone to know that's my real name." Genim laughed at Stiles pain, "I'm never going to live it down. How does Peter even know it?" Stiles asked pulling at his hair.

"Hello, he adopted me," Genim gave his other self another duh look, "as in he had to sign official paper work."

"I think it's nice that at least one of you goes by the name your mother gave you." Sheriff Stilinski remarked. They both rolled their eyes at this at the exact same time. "I hadn't realized, there're two of them now." The Sheriff groaned.

"Oh no," Melissa joined in, good naturedly. Scott hadn't quiet thought of it that way. In his mind, they were different enough that they definitely felt like two separate people. Maybe it was a little bit like knowing the twins. Same face,way different personalities. He didn't get to think on it long.


	4. Chapter 3: Undead

I do not own Teen Wolf.

O0o.o0O

Scott heard Braeden's transport van drive up the side road to the house. He was a bit gratified by how quickly they had found Peter. They had even beat Deaton and Isaac back. Scott figured it would have taken Derek the better part of a week to find his uncle.

The man was a tricky bastard. When Peter didn't want to be found… well, it took a ridiculously long time to find his ass. Which led Scott to believe: Peter wasn't involved with the freaky, reality jumping predicament. Or, he was purposefully making himself easy to find so that they wouldn't suspect his involvement. Scott was going to let Lydia and Stiles handle the conspiracy theories; they were better at it.

There was a ruckus as the wolves hopped out of the van. Apparently, Peter wasn't coming quietly. He was likely playing some long-term mind games. God, Scott was getting to be as paranoid as Stiles. Although, to be fair, it wasn't like life had given him any reason not to be.

Scott and the uninvited guests stiffened when Peter's scent assaulted their nostrils. Whoa, wasn't _that_ unexpected. "This really is a different universe," Laura wondered in awe. Scott wouldn't have described the situation with awe, more like horror. He had to admit that it was some pretty disturbing proof.

The three humans and one kitsune were awfully confused by Laura's comment. They had heard the van pull up, but their noses missed the subtle clues the werewolves had gotten. Stiles questioned, "Scott, what in the Sam-heck is she babbling-"

Derek, back to his typical emotionally-constipated face, led the hunting party in. Next came Boyd, dragging a complacent Peter, followed closely by Cora. She was glaring daggers at her uncle. More than likely, she was promising divine retribution if he so much as moved.

"Look at what we found!" Erica crowed in triumph. She manhandled a still struggling Kate into the room by the hair. Or would that be werewolf-handing? Woman-handling? Scott took a minute to consider how ruthless girls could be, in general. Braeden entered last closing the door behind her.

Stiles was sputtering again. Kira lent over to ask in a whisper, that every werewolf heard, "Who's that?" Melissa shrugged; she didn't know. The Sheriff, like his son, looked as if his mind was having problems processing what his eyes were seeing. Who knew stunned expressions could be genetic. Scott glanced at Genim to see if he was sporting the face too. Unfortunately, what greeted his curiosity was pure, righteous fury.

"Interesting." drawled Peter. The older werewolf must have been doing some investigative sniffing of his own. Derek growled. Peter was very lucky that Scott was currently the alpha and not his nephew.

"You're screwing Kate fucking Argent!" Genim yelled, royally pissed.

"I don't see how my personal life is any business of yours," Peter glanced between the two could-be-twins, "Stiles." Genim was pacing at the edge of the ash line like a caged animal, despite the circle already being broken.

"Pst, Stiles." Scott called, trying to get his best friend's attention. Stiles turned around. Scott made eye contact, then gave the jar Stiles was still holding a significant look.

"Right." Stiles rushed over to give Kate and Peter each their own circle of mountain ash. As he did that, Scott pulled out his phone and dialed Allison.

"Hey. Everything alright?" Allison answered on the second ring.

"Yeah, about that." Scott fumbled with what to tell her, figuring Allison would need to see it to believe it. "Something's come up."

"We'll be there in 15 minutes." Scott could hear Malia rounding up Lydia and Danny in the background. This wasn't good because A: Allison would come in guns, or arrows, blazing, and B: her dad's apartment was at least 20 minutes away.

"No, take your time." Scott tried calming her down. He face-palmed at his own lack of being able to think before speaking. "We aren't talking life or death, here. Well, maybe we are. But no one is in danger of dying right this minute."

"Ohh-Kay..." Allison drew out the vowels, clearly not following Scott's assurance.

"Bring the books with you, we can study them here." Scott continued, remembering Chris, "And you might want to call your dad. It's not urgent, just- you know, important. And he'll probably want to be here."

"Sure, Scott." Allison agreed before she hung up, "In that case, give us half an hour." Scott sighed. He was still learning how to be in charge and he fumbled a lot. Not only that, he'd always had problems speaking around his ex.

Back to the business at hand, Scott noticed that the lines around Peter and Kate where much more circular than the other pack's. The circles were also much smaller, forcing their occupants to stand. "Now," began Peter pompously, as if he was running this show, "I would like to know why I have been so unceremoniously drug from my apartment. Literally." Scott rolled his eyes. He realized the man must have refused to walk on his own just so he could use that line. Jackass.

Derek barked, "_My_ apartment."

"Well I've been paying the bills." came Peter's snooty rejoinder.

"You were in my bed. With _her_!" Derek gritted out, coming right to the barrier's edge as he pointed at Kate.

"It's not like she hasn't been in your bed before." Peter taunted. That was it. Derek snapped. His anger overwhelmed his common sense. He slammed into the invisible force field and harmlessly bounced off. Peter seemed to be immensely proud at his talent to tick Derek off. Scott shook his head at their ability to bicker like toddlers.

"What did I miss?" Stiles sat next to Scott and offered him a big bucket of popcorn. Scott hadn't even realized he had left room. Scott stared at his friend. "What? This is better than my telenovelas." There was no way he was going to touch that information.

"Stop, this conversation is not productive." Scott told the two elder werewolves. He was kind of amazed _he_ had become the voice of reason. When the hell had that happened? At least he got the chance to use one of the vocabulary words he learned that year.

The wolves immediately stopped their glaring match to face their alpha. Scott gave himself a second to embrace the small bit of glee he felt as the two men obeyed him. That was so freakin' cool. "Peter, I sent Derek to bring you in to see if you could… share what you knew about other dimensions."

"Not a lot, I'll admit; but some." Peter conceded. Then he asked Scott, "Couldn't you have just called me?" Scott raised an eyebrow, silently telling him to stop bullshitting. "Ah, you thought I had something to do with them," Peter gestured to the other pack, "and you didn't trust me not to run."

"Dude, you don't really inspire trust." Stiles pointed out, alluding to Peter's secret relationship with Kate.

"Why didn't you tell us Kate was back?" Scott asked seriously, "How long has she even been around?"

"Wait, Kate? As in Derek's homicidal ex-girlfriend? The one that burnt down the Hale House with everyone in it?" Kira clarified. A mourning howl tore from Derek, Cora, and Laura's throats. It was a heart wrenching sound and Kira looked sheepishly at them.

"I don't know how long Kate's been back." Scott snorted. Like he would believe _that_ for a second. Peter had his fingers in so many pies and had way too many birdies not to have a very good guess. "I didn't tell you she was around because I didn't think it was important."

"A serial, werewolf hunter being around a bunch of young wolves," Genim called out, "Not important at all."

"Why are you even with her?" Laura asked with perverse curiosity.

"I don't expect you to understand," Peter addressed the room, "but we have found we have a few things in common."

"What, trying to kill your family? Or being insane sociopaths?" Erica was on a sarcastic roll, "No, it must have been both of you being undead."

"How?" Boyd broke his normal silence.

"How what?" asked Cora, "How can Peter be with the murdering bitch who put him in a coma? Or how did she come back from the dead?"

Kate spit, implying she wasn't going to tell them anything. So everyone turned to Peter, "I felt it was water under the bridge. What's a little bit of murder among friends? We all've done it at one point or another." Peter chose to the answer the first question. Scott felt a little disturbed that he couldn't really argue with that observation. The others' thoughts must have mirrored his because no one else commented.

Scott could hear Jackson's Porsche so it was time to pause the Q&amp;A session for the night. "Derek, take Peter to his room. Put Kate in a spare. Stiles, can you use your mojo to make sure they stay there? Maybe confine Kate to a bed so she doesn't like start another fire with the electrical wires." Scott knew he wasn't going to be able to sleep that night with the chilling reminder of what the hunter could do and had done before.

O0o.o0O

Jackson was plugging his nose as he and Isaac led Deaton into the house. "What is that smell?!" Even Isaac was cringing at the scent.

"It's Peter's new girlfriend." Erica replied helpfully. The boys coughed a little. Scott couldn't help thinking that Erica had a particularly sick sense of humor. She definitely took pleasure in other's discomfort.

Deaton eyed the mountain ash circles questioningly but he didn't comment. He went directly to the three previously caged wolves and waited for Scott's permission to start treating them. Scott waved him on. It was interesting to find what was considered taboo when on pack land. Apparently Scott could keep a healer from helping an injured patient if he wanted to.

Isaac incredulously pointed out, "She smells like a dead cat."

"Yeah, can you believe he's banging her?" Cora channeled Erica's sadism. The sound of gagging filled the room as the teenagers got the visual picture accompanied by the still lingering musk. Genim had resorted to hitting his head against the couch's wooden armrest. Melissa and Sheriff Stilinski shared amused looks at the teenagers' reaction.

Deaton of course, ignored the drama. He was already drawing Lexie's blood. Hopefully he'll find out what had hit the werewolf so hard, and have a quick fix.

Scott's phone buzzed. He didn't waste any time answering, "Yes?"

"Scott?" It was Ethan, "We didn't find anything about the interdimensional travel."

"What's up?" Scott briefly wondered what was wrong. The twin didn't sound panicked.

"Dude, we heard something equally strange, though." Aiden said a little farther from the phone, "Some hunter bitch is back from the dead."

"We know." Scott relaxed.

"Yeah, and apparently- wait, you already know?" Ethan's voice became less enthusiastic.

"Derek and his group brought them back." Scott informed the twins.

"Then, as in-" Aiden trailed off.

"Yup," Scott confirmed. "and Kate doesn't smell human."

"Huh." Aiden and Ethan seemed a little put out, realizing that they hadn't found anything new.

Scott felt bad about making them look for clues. They weren't likely to find anything that late. Believe it or not, supernatural creatures had to sleep too. "Why don't you guys head on back. Get some sleep and you can start again in the morning."

"Roger," Ethan said, signing off.

Scott looked back at Deaton who was cutting silver bullets from Lexie's back. Apparently, the stupid hunter who shot her didn't realize the myth had nothing to do with the metal. The bullets hadn't even been laced with Aconite. If they had, Lexie's veins would have turned black. At least then Scott would have known what to do to help. Unfortunately, it looked like she was already a bit banged up and her body had healed over the wounds. She was probably stuck fighting an infection that the heavy metal in her system was causing.

Scott gave himself a mental A at the diagnosis. He was really coming along on his medical studies. He was going to go to a veterinarian college in the area. Deaton had recommended him for a few scholarships and he had received enough to pay his tuition in full. That hadn't stopped Scott from learning as much as he could before he got there.

Scott noticed Lexie's shivering form and stepped over the broken barrier without hesitation. He sat next to the incapacitated girl and took her hand. Genim and Laura didn't look too happy about how close he was to their injured pack mate but they didn't challenge him.

Scott soothed Lexie's pain and was astonished by the looks of surprise both Genim and Laura shot at him. Lexie stilled and began to breathe far easier than she had previously. Scott didn't understand why the two wolves hadn't learned that particular trick. Any werewolf could do it and it was pretty darn useful. He could maybe understand why Genim didn't know, but had Talia never taught her daughter?

Scott's mind was drifting due to the time of night. He was having problems concentrating and wondered if it was like how Stiles felt. For that matter, Genim didn't seem as hyper as his counterpart. Could Lycanthropy cure ADHD like it had cured Scott's asthma? If the curse didn't have such a huge chance of killing a person, they could market the Bite as a cure-all.

Focus. Scott spoke to Isaac, "Isaac, can you call Liam? Tell he and Brett that they should get back here or go home for the night. It's getting pretty late and they don't need to be out looking everywhere for Morell." If Scott was having a hard time concentrating, the two younger wolves probably were too.

Scott could hear Isaac talking to the pups. It appeared that they refused to miss a sleepover at the den. _That_ was a new name for the Hale House. Scott liked it, it felt right and it fit with the whole wolf metaphor thing.

As soon as the pups and the twins got back, the whole pack would be there. Scott thought, listening to Allison park her car. Jackson and Isaac went to greet their girlfriends (ex, in Jackson's case) and help carry in books.

Scott desperately tried to figure out the logistics of where to put everyone with his sleep addled mind. The house had just been finished and no one was supposed to move in for at least another week. The rooms were filled with boxes. Necessities like beds hadn't been moved at all. Plus, there were now a large number of people who didn't even live there. For example; Kate and the dimension travelers.

Allison could sleep in Isaac's room and give hers to her dad. Scott knew Chris was most likely on his way at that moment. Stiles could sleep in Malia's and give his room to the sheriff; he figured he could do the same for Melissa and have her stay in Kira's room. Scott was also sure the parents weren't going to like this arrangement. They could probably put their three other guests in another guest room. Braeden would probably sleep in Derek's room again. Brett and Liam had their own rooms, of course, but they weren't going to graduate for another two years so the rooms were empty. Scott wondered if Deaton was going to stay over too. There were three other couples that could share rooms, but it still didn't solve the problem of beds. It was too much.

Malia dropped her box of books in the entryway to cover her nose with both hands. Yay distraction. "I've smelled rotting roadkill that smelt better than this." Malia commented.

"Why would you know what rotting roadkill smells like?" Genim asked, grossed out at the comparison.

"I'm a were-coyote. Coyote's aren't really choosy about where a meal comes from." Malia told the alternate version of her boyfriend.

"You ate roadkill?" Laura was turning green.

Malia started to take offense. "I was stuck as a coyote for 8 years."

"So there are other were-creatures." Genim wondered.

Jackson spoke up, "Dude, I was a Kanima. And you already implied that you killed the other version of me because of that."

"I thought it was a freak accident. You know, really rare." Genim confirmed, "But it makes me think that maybe Kate is different too."

"She doesn't smell like another wolf." Cora agreed, "At least Malia smells like one of us."

"Who's Kate?" Allison asked as she walked in carrying her own stack of books.

Lydia had a monitor, "Is she another pod person?"

Everyone who knew who Kate actually was froze. "Umm, Allison, You might want to sit down." Scott said slowly.

Down came the books. Isaac valiantly tried to save them, despite his box. "She's alive?" No one could ever accuse Allison of being slow on the up take.

"No really, who's Kate?" Danny asked, not understanding what was going on. He had already started hooking the computer tower to a wall.

Lydia was the one to inform him, "She's Allison's dead aunt."

"Does anyone around here stay dead?" Danny asked with exasperation, "It's almost as bad as a soap opera." The joking aside, Scott hoped so. They had too many enemies. It would not be a good thing if they had to face everyone all over again. Zombies would be even worse. He subtly knocked on wood.

"Where is she?" Allison asked Scott.

"I think it might be a good idea if we wait 'till morning." Scott said, feeling the need to sleep. He noticed Allison's mutinous glare. "Or, at least until your dad gets here."

"Fine." Allison said, sighing out her frustration. "Does anyone know why she isn't currently dead?"

"I might have an idea," Deaton confessed, dropping another bullet into a bowl. Deaton was having trouble with Lexie because she was healing almost as fast as he was cutting into the infections. "It is said that an Alpha can turn a person into a werewolf in a number of ways. One of which is with his claws, if he cuts deep enough."

Scott remembered that Peter had ripped out Kate's throat with his claws. But that had been two years ago; where had she been for all that time?

"The dreams." Allison mumbled. The werewolves, who had all heard her, looked at her questioningly. "After the thing with the Darach; Scott , Stiles and I were having weird dreams. Mine were always about Kate."

"That's right," said Lydia, "I forgot all about that because of the Nogitsune."

"So you knew she was alive?" asked Laura.

Allison shook her head, "No, I just thought they were dreams. We kind of did a dark spell to find our parents before they were sacrificed and it made us all see things."

Genim got all emo again and Scott understood. He had lost Melissa to the Darach, and if the universes matched, up he most likely lost his dad and Chris Argent, too. Laura asked, "You did a dark spell, just like that? They always have consequences."

"Laura stop. I would have done it too. It would have been worth it." Genim hushed her. Everyone notice the haunted look in his eyes.

Everybody also heard the twins' motor cycles, Brett's car, and Chris' suburban. This brought Scott back to more immediate problems. "What should we do about beds?"

"What?" asked Erica, voicing the room's confusion at the sudden change in conversation.

Scott elaborated, "Sleeping arrangements. I've been thinking about it and we don't really have enough beds, even if half of us share."

"Puppy pile!" Stiles exclaimed, coming back into the room.

"That's not a half bad idea." Stated Isaac, earnestly.

Lydia happily agreed, "It would be just like elementary school."

"Woohoo, sleep over!" Erica was getting into it. She probably hadn't had a lot of invites over the years, due to her epilepsy.

Cora confided with a little melancholy, "My family would sleep out here in the living room all the time."

"It was usually movie night." Laura confirmed, remembering. Then she became surprised, "Wait how did you know about that?"

Cora replied with hurt, "Cause I lived here too. Some sister you turned out to be."

"Cora?" Laura gasped and ran to give her a hug. "We thought you died. How did you survive the fire?"

"How'd _you_ survive the fire?" Cora returned her question, not giving anything away. She let Laura hug her though.

Derek ordered Cora, "Just tell her." He had come back from dealing with Peter. "I want to know too."

Cora blushed, but told them anyway, "Mom said I could go over to a friend's house. When the fire happened, one of mom's acquaintances came to get me."

"Which acquaintance?" Laura asked, her voice full of gratitude and a little suspicion.

Cora glared at the lack of trust, "Ito Satomi, the lady who gave mom all of that tea."

"Why didn't she send you back to us?" Laura asked, bewildered.

"Ito said that mom had been betrayed and that I couldn't trust anyone. I kind of took that to heart. I bounced around a lot of packs and I eventually settled down in South America."

"You were an omega?" Laura was horrified. Man, her emotions must have been all over the place.

Genim chimed in with, "La Loba. She must have been the she-wolf the Calaveras were asking about."

"Who were the Calavera's asking for?" Chris asked from the door way. As a fellow hunter, he knew the Mexican family well.

"Araya, the creepy old lady, had us captured and tortured. She kept asking about 'La Loba.'" Genim told Chris frostily.

"Same here." Scott said to the older hunter. "We thought it was Cora too."

"Did you do anything to piss the Calaveras off?" Chris asked Cora.

Cora deigned, "The only people I've pissed off recently are the alphas and my family."

"She can be a real pain in the ass." agreed Aiden. The twins had come in and sat down next to their boyfriend and girlfriend. Liam and Bret, who had come in right after them, were clinking away in the kitchen, looking for left overs. Teenage werewolves were even more of a black hole than normal teenage boys.

"Is this what you wanted to talk to me about, Scott?" Chris asked him.

"Dad," Allison answered before Scott could, "Kate is alive."

"We aren't entirely certain about that." Stiles disagreed, "We think she's more undead than alive. Like Peter."

"She does smell like a dead cat." Malia put her two cents in and some of the pack nodded.

Chris blinked, dumb struck. Maybe being told your dead sister wasn't just dead but undead by a bunch of supernatural high-schoolers was a little too surreal for the man. "How?"

"We don't know; she won't talk." Derek growled at the hunter.

"Oh, and she's doing Peter." There went Erica's crudeness again.

"But he killed her." Chris, like the rest of them, hadn't seen that coming. Also, what a point to focus on. Evil, dead hunter back from the grave and Chris can't believe she's sleeping with the man who killed her. God, they all had some F'ed up priorities.

"Apparently, it gives them something in common." Scott said, remembering the earlier conversation.

"What? Having died, or them trying to kill one another?" Chris asked and a few of the wolves started busting up laughing.


	5. Chapter 4 Conference Call

I do not own Teen Wolf.

O0o.o0O

Scott wiped the sleep from his eyes as he entered the spare room. He was too freaking tired for this. Chris had insisted that they confront his psychotic sister right then and there.

Scott left Derek in charge of setting the living room up for the impromptu sleepover. It was Derek's house and it wasn't like Scott had any experience with weird werewolf cuddle sessions. The closest he'd ever come to a sleep over was when either he or Stiles crashed at the other's house while playing video games. Plus it didn't hurt that Derek had to deal with organizing teenage chaos instead of probably trying to kill Kate. Again.

Speaking of the she-devil. Kate sat like a Queen in the middle of the empty room. Scott didn't quite understand how she could look dignified with her hands cuffed behind her back and trussed up with rope. It kind of seemed like Stiles and Erica went a little overboard. Note to self, keep them away from each other in the future.

Chris followed Scott into the room, cool as a cucumber. God, that sounded like something his mom would say. He rubbed tiredly at his face again as Chris greeted his sister, "Kate."

"Chris," Kate replied, surprisingly pleasant, "It's been too long big brother." Kate's façade fell along with her bogus smile when her gaze met Allison's. The younger huntress was standing in the doorway with a crossbow aimed at her aunt's heart. Kate mockingly asked Chris, "Are we going to play good-cop bad-cop now?"

"Cut the crap Kate," Chris barked at her, "How'd you do it? How did you come back from the dead?"

"Ooh, I'm so scared." Kate sarcastically told him. "What are you going to do, torture the truth out of me? We all know you don't have the balls." Chris gritted his teeth in anger.

"My dad might still care enough not to hurt you; but I'm not afraid of a little blood." Allison spoke up from the doorway. Scott paused to remember the sweet shy transfer student he'd met two years ago. She had turned into such a badass. It was kinda hot.

"Look at you, all grown up." Kate's voice had a disturbing level of pride in it. "You're a credit to the Argent name."

Allison blanched at the unwanted praised. Chris looked none too happy either. "Well I guess if I can't beat it, I might as well embrace our family's …darker nature." She continued dropping the cross bow and nonchalantly leaned against the door frame. "According to the code; you are my responsibility. To deal with as I see fit."

Kate laughed at her niece's posturing. "Kill me then 'cause I'm not telling you anything." Kate chirped, her insanity blazing in her eyes. "Of course, you wouldn't know if I'd just come back again."

Chris, who had lost his temper long ago, ineffectively punched the wall. Scott winced at the newly created hole. They had just finished the renovations. Trying to avoid any more damage to the room Scott suggested, "We should leave this for tomorrow. We can let her stew in here until she's ready to talk." Chris nodded at the young alpha.

Allison was obviously not as happy with the compromise. Scott heard Kate scream before he even realized that Allison had shot an arrow. "Don't worry , you won't die." She told her aunt, "There is just enough wolf's bane to keep you from healing." Well, there went the carpet.

O0o.o0O

Scott was glad it hadn't worked out between him and Allison. She was scary. He was sort of worried for Isaac's health. He had told Derek what had happened. The older man groaned over the repairs they'd have to make. The sooner they built the holding cells in the basement, the better.

Scott also gave Stiles the low down after he grabbed a sleeping bag for atop a precarious pile of blankets. "Maybe sadism is like an Argent family curse. Dude, you dodged a bullet when Allison dumped you."

"Hey!"

"Sorry."

"Nah, I was thinking the same thing earlier." Scott confided laying his bag between Kira's neat bedding and Stiles nest.

"I'm worried about Isaac." Stiles told Scott seriously.

"Shut up you guys." Isaac called over to them. He, like the other werewolves, could hear every word of the whispered conversation. They heard Isaac's half mumbled reply to a question Allison asked, "Don't worry about it."

Stiles told Scott, "The bedrooms better be sound proof!"

"Definitely." Scott nodded keeping up with his bro's ability to jump tracks.

"Yeah, no one wants to hear you and Malia." Jackson called out.

"Why Jackson, what an odd thing to focus on. I'm flattered; but I don't swing that way." The other teens laughed at Stiles jokes. Scott's last thought before sleep took him was about he loved his pack.

O0o.o0O

Scott was decidedly uncomfortable when he woke the next morning. His back was sore from sleeping on the hardwood floor and he was way too hot. Half asleep he realized couldn't even move. Kira was laying pretty much on top of him and Stile had his head uncomfortably in Scott's gut and a hand in his face.

Scott tried to roll his head away from Stiles' hand and realized that both Derek and Isaac had the heads on either side of his. That was a little too creepy for him that early in the morning. He blinked a couple of times to clear away the lingering sleepiness. He gently moved Kira and Stiles off of himself and slowly sat up.

That was an interesting tid-bit of wolfy lore. It seemed no matter where the wolves had fallen asleep the previous night, they had moved to circle him. Malia was on the other side of Stiles wrapped around him. Liam was curled up around Scott's feet and Brett had an arm looped around the boy's middle. Scott internally chuckled, what he wouldn't give to have a camera.

On Stiles' other side lay his alternate self at a sort of catty-corner. Next to him was Laura who slept facing her brother. Derek had Braeden on his left and then there was Isaac. He couldn't be all that comfortable with Erica and Boyd resting the heads on one of his thighs and Allison asleep on his arm. Talk about poor blood circulation problems. Cora had her head on Boyd's shoulder opposite of Erica.

Scott Smile when he noticed Allison and Lydia holding each other's hands in sleep. Aiden was playing Lydia's big spoon. Ethan mirrored his brother with Danny. The twin's had slept back to back. Jackson was sleeping on Danny's stomach much the way Stiles had been sleeping on Scott's. That completed the circle down by Scott's feet.

Lexie was still asleep on the couch nearest Genim and Laura. He hoped she'd have recovered during the night. He studied the broken displaced pack. Thinking about it, the way his pack had arranged themselves said a lot about their dynamic. He wondered how Liam's best friend Mason and Brett's younger sister Lori would fit in. How would Peter? Last night's stress was back.

Scott heard a sizzling from the kitchen and smelt the rich aromas of breakfast food. His stomach growled reminding him of why he'd woken up in the first place. He shifted carefully out of his sleeping bag trying not to wake anyone. It was surprisingly easy for being surrounded by werewolves.

Scott shouldn't have been that shocked when he noticed Derek watching him. Still, it almost gave him a heart attack. Derek smirked at him no doubt hearing Scott's racing heart. The former alpha raised a finger to his lips indicating he didn't want to wake the others. Derek's face held a level of peace Scott had never seen on the man before.

Scott idly wondered when had been the last time Derek had been able to completely relax. It sounded like the Hales used to do this a lot but that was years ago. Before the fire. Having finally experienced the comfort of the pack, his family, all around him; Scott couldn't imagine what it was like for Derek. Missing such a huge piece of what defined a person and wolf must have been devastating. Scott was filled with a new understanding of the sour wolf.

Derek gestured with a lift of his chin towards the kitchen. Scott listened for a minute picking up voice that hadn't been in the house when the pack had fallen asleep last night. Panic briefly overwhelmed him. He hadn't heard people enter the den. His pack could have been in danger.

With just one breath the previous calm came back to Scott. He might not have been paying attention but Derek had. That was part of being pack, trusting others to watch your back and pick up the slack. Derek wasn't worried and he had the most to be concerned about. The man's pack had been decimated from his negligence and their murderer was currently in the house. He knew all too well what could happen to their young pack. Yet there Derek was lying on the ground with a relatively gigantic smile (for the sour wolf) on his face. The man had really come a long way since he had first met Scott.

Scott ambled into the kitchen to see just who had stopped by. He stop to stare at the aprons the Sheriff and Mr. Argent were wearing as they helped prepare breakfast. Scott pinched himself to make sure this wasn't one of those weird, randomly surreal dreams. He shook himself out of his thoughts.

Scott noticed his mom was wearing an apron too when he bent down to give her a good morning kiss on the cheek. It wasn't so unusual for Melissa to wear one on the rare occasion she had time to cook. She was the probably the one who had insisted the two widowed bachelors wear them. It was actually right up Melissa's alley to hand them the frilly kind when Scott knew their were more masculine aprons in the same closet. He shook his head not giving anything way.

The three parents were cooking a mountain of pancakes, sausages and scrambled eggs. Not for the first time Scott was glad for the eight burner stove. Along the bar sized island the other 'Adults' in the supernatural-know sat nursing cups of coffee. He greeted them. Deaton was back along with the Yukimuras. Surprise, surprise, Ms. Morell had shown up too. Deputy Parish waved at him and pointed to two pink boxes, "I brought donuts."

"We've found some interesting information." Noshiko started telling Scott.

"Hold that thought." Scott told her walking passed them into the back rooms on the other side of the kitchen. He was interested in what she had to say but nature was calling him to the bathroom.

O0o.o0O

By the time Scott had got back from his bathroom break, which really hadn't taken long at all, there was a line to use the toilet. The parents had finished breakfast and moved into the much bigger dining room. Despite the size of the room, it was still a little cramped. Thirty-one people were supposed to crowd around a table meant for twenty, at most. There were a number of fold-up chairs from outside and a small coffee table pushed against a corner to make due.

Ito Satome had dropped by and she had brought Lori with her. That was a mix bag. The Japanese woman was the most experience werewolf in the room, as she had been bit sometime before world war two. However Braeden and the Argents, who were werewolf hunter, were at the little summit. Few wolves tolerated them, even on good days. On top of that Ito had recently lost a good majority of her pack to hunters. Brett, one of her few surviving pack members had decided to join Scott. Lori was still too young to decide so she lived with Ito since her parents had been killed. The girl would probably follow her brother when she got older. Then there was the latest revelation of interference in Cora's past. Laura and Derek were giving the old lady the stink eye, despite her past friendship their mother Talia. Not to mention Ito didn't get along well with kitsune in general and Noshiko specifically. To say Scott wasn't pleased to see the other alpha, was an understatement, if just for the headache she caused.

"Good morning Alpha McCall." Ito said as Scott entered the room. Laura of all people handed him a plate. He took the empty seat left for him at the head of the table. He wasn't sure how he felt about that.

"Good Morning to you too, Alpha Satome." Scott followed her lead. Peter and Derek had been trying to drill werewolf customs and protocols into him. Unfortunately some of them didn't take. It was pretty dry stuff. It wasn't like common werewolf knowledge. Only the really old wolf packs followed them anyway. Dereck said it was better to be the one being offended, in that case, then the one offending.

"Morning everyone," Scott said greeting his own pack. It was hard for him to make eye contact with most of his pack. The dining table flared out on the sides, which made it difficult to see anyone who sat in the middle of table but made it easier to see the other end.

Scott was pretty surprised at the line up around the table. Directly across from Scott, at the other end, sat Morell and Deaton. Ito was surrounded on her left by Melissa and Parish on her right. That was probably for the best, next to Deaton, those two exuded the most calming influence. On Parish other side was the Sheriff. To the side of Morell was Noshiko followed by Ken and Kira. Sitting right next to Kira was Allison. That was pretty weird for Scott as the two girls rarely chose to be around one another. Allison sat next to Chris and on his other side was Braeden, a fellow hunter. Obviously they had arranged themselves according to specialty and alliances.

On the other side of the table was Scott's pack. To Scott's left were Derek and his previous beta's; Isaac, Erica, Boyd, and Cora in that order. Stiles as his best friend sat on Scott's right. Malia came next, followed by Lydia, the twins, and Danny. Jackson was hiding on Danny's right in no man's' land, i.e. the middle of the table. Scott was glad to see that Lexie was finally awake sitting between Jackson and Braeden. Across from them sat the other two dimension hoppers. Laura sat next to her sister and Genim was next to the sheriff.

Poor Brett and Liam were pouting at the "kids" table with Lori. Scott sympathized with them. He'd much rather have them up at the conference table than the twins. Or at least Aiden and Jackson. Unfortunately they hadn't spent enough time with the pack to rank.

There was a quiet at the table as people ate. "So," Scott finally asked, "Who wants to get this party started?"

Ito raised an eyebrow at his blasé attitude but held her piece. Deaton thankful decide to help get things moving, "Why don't we start with the facts then move from there?"

"Ok," Scott agreed. His pack took turns speaking about what they all had learned the previous day.

"We'd recently received new information that a couple of hunter's had cornered Peter near the old Hale House." Genim replied to a question Ito asked, "They hadn't been able achieve their target because they were unable to find him. My pack was making for the reserve when we were attacked by the county sheriffs." He stopped when his alternate father stiffened.

Laura continued his tale, "We fled back here taking heavy damage. I supposed we could hold up in the house." She looked around the room at the walls not really seeing them. "One last stand. They killed Isaac. There were more hidden in the ruins. Then flash-bang, we're here."

There was silence after her pronouncement. Then Lydia broke it, "You should know that their alpha was and alternate version of Peter." Many of the faces around the table darkened. They already made snap judgements about the situation based on that one piece of information.

"Don't rush to any conclusions." Scott found himself warning, "Lots of things in the other universe are very different from ours. Genim told me that they trust their alpha. He is, or was, the legal guardian of guardian of Isaac, Lexie, and Genim. From their reaction to this world's Peter, I can honestly say he isn't too much like theirs." Some of Scott's pack grinned at the memory of last night's confrontation.

"Speaking of Peter…" Erica changed the subject.

"Yes, what of Peter?" Morell asked.

Scott nodded for Derek group to talk about the Kate incident. "She won't tell us how she came back to life;" Allison finished telling them, "but I've been having nightmares about her for months."

"Prophetic dreams?" Morell asked.

Deaton answered her, "I led Scott, Stiles, and Allison through a ritual to find their parents when the Darach took them. As I have told you before." Deaton held her eyes for a second. "All three had disturbing dreams. These dreams have heralded supernatural events."

"What events?" Jon Stilinsky asked.

"Scott's dreams were concerned with his overcoming the darker elements werewolves have to face within themselves. By overcoming his violent impulses he showed himself a true alpha capable of defeating a very powerful, mad Deucalion. Stiles' dreams had to do with the escape of a nogitsune, a dark, supernatural creature that thrives on chaos and destruction. Luckily he also overcame his possessor by facing his worst nightmares."

Allison asked self-consciously Deaton, "Does that make Kate my trial?"

"Possibly." Deaton told her honestly, "However we don't know what exactly you are supposed to face within yourself. Scott and Stiles' weren't literal interpretations of their external and internal battles." Allison didn't look reassured by this.

"I have been told that Ms. Argent was murder by Peter's own hand." Ito volunteered, "If his claws penetrated her spinal cord he may have unknowingly turned her into a werewolf."

"She isn't a wolf." Cora told the older woman.

Ken quietly asked, "What do you mean?"

"She smells like a dead cat." Malia informed him.

"Cat shape-shifters aren't an uncommon myth and legends tell of Jaguar people throughout the Americas." Ito told the group.

"Yes," Laura said dismissively, "But where has she been all this time. The Change would've happened by the following full moon, if it's anything like with werewolves. It seems like you all had no idea, for what? A year? Two?" That was a disturbing thought. Kate Argent left unchecked for two long years.

"By the way, both her and Peter are here. We're holding them captive." Stiles pointed out the Pack's productivity.

"They're here?" Noshiko asked looking at her daughter. Kira slid down her seat.

"Yeah," Erica spoke up. "They didn't come quietly."

Boyd uncharacteristically corrected, "Peter didn't fight, he just wanted to be difficult."

"Kate on the other hand wasn't happy with us at all." Cora told them.

Breaden said, "I had to put a couple of tranqs in her before we could get her cloths back on. And she still fought us."

"There are just some things that will scar you for the rest of your life." Cora shuddered. Scott didn't want to even imagine. Peter, her uncle, with Kate and that smell. He gagged, again.

It was time for Scott to change the subject. "Aiden, Ethan, you said you had some information on this."

Ethan started, "You know that bar outside town that caters to our kind, Willy's. Well, they have a bounty on Kate's head. It's a lot of money, has to be a hunter family."

"A wendigo told us that he'd seen Kate as far back as two months ago. No one believed him because everyone knew Peter had killed her." Aiden said. "A lot of the greater SN community took a month's vacation. You know, celebration of her passing. She wasn't a popular lady."

"That and they were afraid of Argent retaliation. No one decided to give any of us the memo in either case." Ethan wrapped up. "There was absolutely nothing on the possibility of going to another universe."

"I don't know about that. Willy seemed a little tense at the idea." Aiden argued with his brother.

Ethan wouldn't concede his point, "Yeah, that's 'cause Willy's a rat. He always looks tense when people ask him questions."

"He does flinch a lot, like someone is gonna punch him," Aiden allowed, "Did you ever notice that he's more afraid of girls."

"Yeah, weird huh." Ethan agreed.

"Guys as interesting as that is, is there anything else, like, important?" Scott asked them rolling his eyes at their squabbling.

"Sorry boss-man." The twin said in stereo. As disturbing as that was, Scott wondered if he could get Genim and Stiles to do it too.

"We have something similar to add." Noshiko told the group.

Ken said, "The intuitives are nervous." The pack looked at Lydia who shrugged. Ken continued oblivious to the teenagers, "They say there have been multiple disturbances."

"Does this including the Nemeton's awakening?" Deaton asked the man.

Noshiko answered, "Since then. Our sources weren't talking about the other supernatural events we've faced recently, either. The disturbances aren't dark, light, or anything in-between. One of our contacts said, 'alien.'"

"Cool, as in spaceships and lasers." Stiles questioned excitedly. Scott full on face-palmed for everyone to see.

"Unfortunately, I think they meant more like out of the known universe. Not out of this world, Stiles." Ken let him down easily. "I believe they were referring to our visitors."

"Multiple disturbances?" The sheriff clarified.

Noshiko nodded, "Two to be exact."

"Maybe I can elaborate." Morell told the group. "I felt two huge magical pulses."

"You didn't think to share this information earlier?" Derek questioned her harshly.

"I am telling you now." Morell stared coldly back. "One occurred last night at the sun set. The other was a little over one week ago, in the early morning."

"That's about when the hunter's last saw our alpha," Lexie spoke for the first time.

"Does anyone smell something weird?" Isaac asked suddenly. Talk about random and a little worrying.

"Yeah, this is a little fishy." Style said, but the werewolves ignored him understanding Isaac had been talking literally.

"I can't smell anything over Kate's funk." Erika told him.

Malia took a large inhale, her mouth open, "No, I smell it too. It's similar to Kate but it reminds me of bear."

"Dead bear?" Cora asked her cousin.

"Wait I hear people moving around outside." Jackson told them his eye's closed, head cocked.

Scott, Derek, and Genim were already in motion by the time they heard the tinkling of breaking glass.


	6. Chapter 5: Werebears

I do not own Teen Wolf and I don't own Werebear toy brand.

O0o.o0O

The trio ran up the stairs towards the sounds of the intruders. Scott caught movement out of the corner of his eye. Genim and Derek hadn't hit the landing yet so they had more time to avoid the ginormous person that was coming their way. A huge fist, however, hit _him_ in his face. It hurt a heck of lot. Understatement of the century.

The sensation of weightless was disorienting but not unexpected. The realization and dread at why gravity wasn't working at that particular moment was less fun. Then there was the thud. Oww. God damn, who knew that wood floor hurt more that carpeted ones. Luckly, he hadn't hit the other two wolves on his way down. Maybe that was more like unfortunate, at least he would have had some cushioning, then.

Scott picked himself back up off the ground and wearily ran up the flight of stairs again. Derek was engaging a man-beast but Genim was stuck behind him waiting for an opening to get past the two. The fight was bottlenecking the hall way.

Happily, Scott had helped design the house. Well, he had contributed ideas to the house's reconstruction. Therefore he had the advantage of knowing an alternate route. He tapped Genim on the back and had to dodge another fist for his trouble. After the friendly fire, Genim realized who was trying to get his attention. Scott nodded his head in the opposite direction towards the other end of the hall way.

The two wolves ran away from the fight and turned the corner. On the second floor there was a hallway on either side of the center rooms allowing them to take the long way around. It didn't really matter what direction they chose, Peter and Kate were on the third floor. If Scott had to guess, that would be where these creatures were heading.

Like Malia said, whatever they were, they smelt like bear. It was a stale musk and had a lingering scent of dust. Like a taxidermy animal that spent too long in an attic. They also were covered in bones and wore some sort of animal skull on their heads. The leather pants and the bone necklace gave them an Indian feel. Or was he supposed to say Native American. He always got confused with those terms. "Hey, Genim, would you say they were Indian."

"Dot or feather?" Genim asked with a grin easily keeping pace with Scott.

"Uhhh, did you see any feathers?" Scott replied trying to remember the particular detail.

Genim gave him an incredulous look. "Dude, I don't think it matters. "

"Then why'd you ask?" Scott yelled as they turned another corner. The wood floor echoing the thuds of their galloping feet.

Genim gave a startled bark of laughter and shook his head, "Scott, man, when all this is over remind me to show an encyclopedia."

Their conversation came to an abrupt end when one of bear guys slammed into Genim and the two tumbled out a window. Crash... wumpf. Scott couldn't spare anytime to check if he was ok; as there was another one coming right at him. Not to mention an unbound Kate. She was limping with her hand pressed to the arrow wound Allison had given her. Scott didn't trust the appearance of seeming weakness. Even as a human, the woman had taken on alphas.

Shit, what Scott wouldn't give for backup. Where the fuck was the rest of his pack? As if called by his thought he noticed Kira charge by him. He paused to worry about her for a moment. Then she engaged the undead huntress. They traded martial blows back and forth. Kate might have been stronger but Kira was faster and had better technique, despite her preference for kendo.

Scott watched as Kate barely missed Kira's face and slammed an elbow through the wall. Ouch. It was probably a good thing Isaac had experience fixing drywall. After Kira dodged again she reached through the hole and grasped the electrical wires. Grabbing ahold of one of Kate's wrists, Kira used her kitsune powers to shock the hell out of the were-cat.

Scott realized his girlfriend could handle herself and refocused on his own fight. He should have been paying more attention because he found himself tackled through a wall and into a room. He hoped that the pack could afford the repairs. With their luck, stuff like their current fight would no doubt occur in the future. He, once again, jumped to his feet. The werewolf pummeled the bear of a man striking over and over again. But it did little good. It was like hitting a brick wall. Only Scott's knuckles were hurt.

Scott suddenly realized that he preferred to have his feet firmly on the ground. Flying through the air just wasn't for him, he decided. Mr. Muscly had thrown the alpha out of the room. He was glad it was through the hole they'd previous made and not through another wall. Little wins. He really didn't like going through the window, though. Hundreds of tiny cuts made by sharp pieces of broken glass weren't all that fun. It didn't matter that they healed almost instantly.

And another thing, a pane that big cost a lot of money. That was it. They were going to return the still intact windows and spring for bullet proof glass. Better security and they wouldn't have to fix it all the time. As for fire codes, they could get those window sills that popped out. Yeah. That sounded good.

Building plans stopped. Scott grunted as he hit earth. There was that 'wumpf' noise again. It was the noise of a body hitting solid ground. He lay there trying to find the air that had so abruptly left him breathless. He took a huge inhale only to have it knocked out of him. Stupid werebear felt like he weighed a ton of bricks.

The douche could have landed anywhere, but no, he decided to land on Scott feet first. Yep, his ribs were definitely broken. It was going to be a bitch to re-brake them so they could properly set. Sometimes werewolf healing could be a real pain. At least he knew that any internal organs he'd burst would be fixed next in no time.

Through his haze, Scott was glad to see the hulking man-beast sprout arrows like a porcupine. He silently cheered Allison. Then man-best used an arm to break the shafts of the arrows sticking out of him. Shit. It was like the thing couldn't even feel pain. And dude was still standing on him.

When the Hulk gained a bleeding third eye, Mr. Argent jumped to the top of Scott's favorite people list. The werebear toppled over backwards. Timber. Scott thankfully was able to gasp a much needed breath of fresh air. Wait, no, he could think of a better comeback, than that. Scott wasn't a lumberjack.

"The bigger they are, the harder they fall." Dammit Stiles. That was supposed to be his witty comment. Scott was helped up by his best friend.

"Really, you couldn't think of something less cliché?" Lydia had to rain on their parade. Both of the boys glared at her. "What? That was pretty lame."

Scott groaned, holding his abused abdomen. He limped to the cluster of the Pack's allies standing out on the lawn. Stiles slung an arm under his shoulder for support. Scott gratefully accepted the help. Stiles almost buckled under the sudden weight. Scott didn't look that big but werewolves were dense suckers.

"If the others could've held out as long as you, buddy, we could have got them." Stiles told him. Scott looked at him in askance. "Kate, Peter, and the other two bone heads are gone."

"Heh," Scott huffed out a laugh and said, "I thought Peter was on our side." He wasn't surprised to be wrong, though.

"When has Peter ever really been on our side?" Erica asked disgusted. She was nursing an arm. It must have healed wrong too. "Peter is only on his side."

"He helps us when it suits his agenda" Isaac confirmed what they all already knew.

Derek spoke up coming out of the house, "He probably decided to cut his losses when we locked him up in the room."

"He knew we don't trust him." Cora said following Derek out. "He wasn't going to be able to spin it his way this time."

Scott tiredly rubbed his face. Too much was happening in too little time and Scott hadn't had enough sleep. None of the pack had. The question was could they put off their problems long enough for a little rest? Could they afford not to?

"What happened?" Scott asked his Pack.

Derek went first. "Whatever that thing was, it was too much for me." That was a big step for Derek. "Isaac and Cora came to help. But nothing we did seemed to faze him. It was as if they couldn't feel pain."

Many of the wolves nodded in agreement. Cora continued from where Derek left off. "He was obviously winning, and then out of nowhere, he jumped out of a window. He just… ran away. Why would he do that?"

"Distraction." Lydia said putting it all together, "It'd give Peter and Kate time to get away."

"The same thing happened to us." Lexie offered.

"When Stilinski came out the window," Laura told them, "Lexie and I went to help."

Genim joined in, "We were able to fend him off but we weren't making a dent. Then like Cora said, he just ran away."

"Anyone else?" Scott asked. That accounted for only a fraction of the wolves who moving stiffly.

"We," Jackson said gesturing to Erica and Boyd, "were told to check on Peter."

Erica took over, "He wasn't really about the fight. He was just trying to get away. Although I got to say, he's no slouch."

Boyd might have been quiet but he wasn't silent on the important stuff, "He wasn't tied up anymore and he'd broken the ash line but we opened the door."

"He could've broken the lock even if we hadn't opened the door." Erica argued with her boyfriend.

"But he didn't" Boyd said. Erica huffed and crossed her arms but she didn't say anything else.

"Guys, its ok, I don't blame you." Scott told them. Hopefully that would head off any serious bouts between the couple. They just didn't have time for in-fighting at that moment. "You said you were told?" He questioned Jackson. Despite trusting the others and knowing it was a good idea Scott bristled at some else giving his pack orders.

"Isaac gave the orders." Jackson told his alpha without hesitation. That was alright then. Isaac was second in command after Derek. Stiles was pretty high up there but he wasn't a wolf so it was a little iffy on his standing in the Pack. Better to avoid him telling the Pack what to do anyway, who knew what he'd have the teens doing.

Isaac tensed when the attention turned to him. The scent of fear abruptly wafted off of him. Scott understood; Isaac thought he blamed him. Scott silently cursed Isaac's abusive father. He quickly tried to think of a way to relax the boy. "Good job, quick thinking." He nodded to Isaac, "What else did you say?"

A much calmer Isaac replied, "I had the twins go to give you back up. Malia and Liam were sent to follow Stiles. He'd grabbed his jar of dust and ran outside. Allison and Braeden went with Kira to check up on Kate. And I heard Satome tell Bret and Lori to run the perimeter with her. To make sure there weren't more, I think. Then Cora and I went to help Derek."

Scott realized maybe he should have stuck around to give the pack those directions himself. He had a habit of acting before he could think things through. But if he hadn't reacted as fast as he had- what would have happened? They would have all gotten away a little sooner. He wouldn't have broken ribs. Huge loss. He couldn't afford to keep making the same mistakes. "Isaac you did better than good." His second glowed at the praise. Good, Isaac's quick thinking _had_ been impressive.

Wait up… Isaac said he sent the twins to back him up. He hadn't hide nor hair of them. "Where're Ethan and Aiden?"

Allison told him, "They ended up taking on Kate after she knocked Kira out."

"Is she ok?" Genim, of all people, asked full of concern.

"Yeah, Braeden took her to Deaton to have her checked out." Allison told them. "Anyway Scott needed my help more. 'Cause he was getting thrown out a window."

"Thanks"

"No problem." Allison told Scott. "Now we know that bullets work, right?"

"Yeah," Scott said. He tried to think of everyone who knew how to shoot. He counted on his fingers as he silently listed them. He probably looked like a doofus. There were the hunters, of course, Alison, her dad, and Braeden. Then there was the Sheriff, Deputy Parish, he knew Stiles could. So that probably included Genim. Braeden had taught Derek and he was a good shot. Allison had taught Lydia a little but she hadn't been very good at it last he remembered. He couldn't count any of the others as he didn't know. "So we have like 8 and a half people who'd be any good at it."

"Who's the half?" Liam asked.

"Lydia." Scott said simply.

"Hey!" Lydia said, "I've gotten better."

"As long as no one stands anywhere near where she's aiming." Jackson snorted. Lydia turned her glare on him. Whatever brownie points Jackson had earned trying to get back into his ex's good graces just went up in flames. Tard.

Scott rolled his eyes. Something occurred to him about what Stiles had said earlier. "Stiles, dude, what did you mean by you could have had them?"

"Oh," Stiles said remembered, "Lydia and I made a circle around the house. By the time we were finished they were already gone."

"Huh." Scott commented. That was a pretty smart idea.

"I'm all out, though." Stiles said holding his empty jar.

Lydia held out a bowl, "I have a little left."

There had to be a better way to put up a protection. The animal clinic was made of Mountain Ash. Maybe they could put a little picket fence around a garden. Then have the garden around the house. They could then put the dust around the doorways when they wanted to keep something in or out. Overkill, he felt like Ezma. That wasn't really safe for the home of werewolves, though. The fire went through Scott's mind as a prime example. It was worth thinking about, right up there with bullet proof glass. He would talk about it with Derek later.

What do now? That was the question.

O0o.o0O

AN: Wow! We have actually broken the 100 review marker. I am kinda amazed. I know that 100 is not a lot for many of you but this is pretty much new for me. I wanted to thank you guys. As much as I would like to tell you that I am giving you a new chapter because I'm grateful; I'm not. I'm giving you a new chapter because my beta has just finished checking it from a couple months ago. Kin is really awesome and took some time out of her very, very busy schedule to proof my story. So it is because of her you have a new chapter so soon. Anyway, I hope you enjoy.

P.S. Don't be afraid to leave a comment. I don't bite... people I don't know really, really well.


	7. Chapter 6: Pain

Scott had been right; his abs hurt like a bitch. Gemin and Boyd held him down while Derek broke his ribs. Kira had a soothing hand on his should and Deaton oversaw the whole process. It was definitely not a pleasant experience. Scott must have been leaking some of his alpha-mojo because the uninvolved pack members huddled in the far corners of the room. They were trying not to draw his notice and possibly his pain induced anger.

As much as Scott loved Stiles, he was about ready to break his face. The spaz was munching on another bucket of popcorn. Lydia had also joined him in the entertainment and refreshments. Only, the redhead happened to be studying him with intense scrutiny as if the injured werewolf was a really interesting lab rat. Scott didn't like it; especially because he was in a pretty venerable position. Must have been his werewolf instincts jumping to the forefront. At least he still had enough control not to take a bite out of Derek.

Now that Kira was awake after Kate's night-night tap, they could start hashing out the game plan. Right after Erica got her arm set. Scott felt better about not being the only one to break bones. He was also glad that he had gone first. It sucked having to watch someone going through pain and knowing you had to go next. Although, this meant that _he_ had to be the one to cause his beta more pain.

Erica whimpered as she approached her healing alpha. The poor girl had gone through a lot of agony in her life. Scott took her arm in his hands, relieving the majority of her discomfort. He gave her a look that said everything would be ok and tried to project a calm, soothing influence. Erica gave him a single nod.

Crack.

There was the first break. Erica let out a shriek. Isaac grabbed her free hand, pulling her attention to him. Snap. Erica's next sound was more like an angry yell. There, done, the arm had been set.

While Erica was getting werewolf cuddles, Scott stretched. There was that weirdly masochistic tendency to poke at things that were sore. Like: 'Does it still hurt?' 'Ow.' "Guess it's still healing.' 'Maybe it's better now.' 'Ow.' 'Definitely not better.' 'One more try.' 'For the love of all that is holy, at least give it a minute before you poke it again.' He shook himself out of his ironic internal dialogue. Actually, his side was already feeling much better. Ah, the awesomeness that is werewolf healing. "OK everybody, what's the plan?"

"We need to find Ms. Argent and Peter Hale." Ito said, entering the house. Scott felt uncomfortable being venerable around his pack, even though he trusted them, let alone someone else. (Well, he almost trusted the Jackson and the twins.) He was definitely having problems with the other Alpha hanging around his territory. Typically, in werewolf society, there was a lot of jockeying for position in pack hierarchy. One's place was fought for; sometimes to the death. Alphas were not excluded from the violence. Look at what happened to Deucalion. Anyway, Scott's pack was atypical in a lot of ways. But that didn't mean he'd trust Ito as far as he could throw her, not when she had a very unstable power base. She was on the verge of being an Omega, herself.

"My uncle would have gone to ground, by now." Derek pointed out with disgust.

"Kate's probably done the same." Chris confirmed.

Scott ran a hand through his hair in frustration. Back at square one; it felt like they had just gone in a huge circle. "You know her best. Know anywhere she'd hide out?"

"I'll call some of her old hunting buddies. See what I can drum up." Chris told the group, grabbing his jacket from the back of the couch.

"Hunters!" Ito spit out. Clearly, it hadn't been enough time for Ito to get over the loss of her pack. The dead pool had been taken out a little over a year ago, but Beacon Hills' supernatural community was still recovering from the massacre. Scott didn't think she was likely to 'get over it,' even if the massacre was a decade ago.

Scott nodded. "Chris, I have to agree with Alpha Satome. No Hunters on pack lands. We don't want any of them sniffing around us, hunters aren't the most trust worthy people." Allison sent him death glares and huffed. Scott gulped and quickly back tracked, "Present company excluded, but we haven't had the best experiences with them." Interestingly enough, Genim was growling at the pissed off Allison. That wasn't a good sign. Past history?

"Understood." Chris accepted Scott's stance on the matter. He was most likely thinking of his own homicidal family's involvement in… almost everything that's gone wrong in Beacon Hills. Wow, dude, what a legacy. "Anything else?" The elder man asked.

Deaton held up two fingers. That was a weird gesture; it looked like he was raising his hand. "If I may add: we still have the previous mystery at hand, as well as the two new were-creatures, to look into." Way to bring it around, Deaton. The teenagers groaned at the reminder. What was the saying? 'One step forward, two steps back.'

"I'll make sure that I ask." Chris said, closing the front door behind him.

Stiles spoke up, having finished the popcorn, "So... research party? We'd didn't get a heck of a lot done yesterday."

"Good idea. You, Kira, Allison, Lidia, and Danny can see what you can find out. We need to know about dimension traveling, werebears, werecats, and undead magic… stuff." Scott commanded, wiggling his fingers to illustrate magic.

"I may be able to lend you some assistance." Deaton told the group. "I have some rare, obscure texts back at the house."

Melissa was grabbing her coat and keys, "I'll drive you, Deaton, I have a shift at the hospital coming up and I need to go get my scrubs before that."

"Speaking of which, Parish and I have to get to the station." Sheriff Stilinski said, standing from his seat at the couch. Scott had to admit the man tugged at his feels when he went to give both versions of his son a hug good bye. Genim looked like he had totally not expected the embrace. The Sheriff finished the good bye and made a shooing motion to get Parish on the move.

Parish waved with a shy, "Bye." There was a chorus of the same from the assorted pack. Everybody noticed the flirt in Lydia's reply, including Jackson and Aiden who looked pretty put out.

"More info gathering?" Ethan asked, trying to get his brother's attention away from his girlfriend.

"Yep," Scott agreed, "You and Aiden are one team, and Erica and Boyd are the other. Erica, why don't you go see if Willy knows about our latest creature of the week?"

"With pleasure." Erica said, cracking her knuckles. Scott took a second to pity the poor bar owner. Then, he was over it. The man was a sleaze.

Scott pondered a moment, trying to figure out how to distribute the remaining members of his pack. It was then that he noticed Braeden's conspicuous absence from their little pow-wow. He got a sinking feeling in his stomach. A hunter, one that had lied in the past, was mysteriously missing right after their two prisoners escaped. Scott smelled something fishy, and it wasn't actual fish.

Anyway, the people who'd have the best ability to track Peter were the ones who spent the most time with him. Following that logic, then the bizarro wolves and the Hales would know him best. So…

"Laura?"

She looked up at Scott, surprised he had addressed her. "Yes."

"You know where the alternate version of Peter hid out when he wanted to be alone?" Scott asked.

"I'm not…" Laura paused, looking down, thinking, "I might know a few places."

"Good. Take Isaac and scout them out." Scott then shifted his attention to Derek, "I want you and Malia to check the places Peter's been known to go to. You found him in the apartment last time. He could try hiding in plain sight again."

"Right." Derek agreed with a nod.

Who next? Jackson was a good tracker. He had a better nose than most, if not all, of the pack. He could go with that one girl that Scott hadn't really gotten a chance to talk to. "Jackson take…"

"Lexie?" Jackson asked saving Scott from bumbling her name. That would have been embarrassing, not to mention a little rude. Lexie, Lexie, Lexie. He had to remember that.

"Yup," Scott confirmed, grabbing his own coat and walking through the front door. "Genim, you're with me."

Scott was about to walk out onto the front porch when Brett and Liam came bounding up to him. "Whoa, whoa, whoa. Where do you think you two are going?"

"Out with you." "To look for the bad guys." The two boys replied, as if it was a no-brainer. Yet both of them were sporting very impressive puppy dog eyes.

Unfortunately for them, Scott was the king of puppy dog eyes. He could even get Derek to do what he wanted, and that was no mean feat. "I don't think so."

"What?" "Why not?" Came the pup's plaintive replies.

"Because you have school in the morning." Boy did Scott feel ridiculous, and more than a little hypocritical, saying that. He heard Stiles snickering somewhere in the back and, out of his peripheries, he saw Derek raise an eyebrow of doom.

"It's the middle of the day." "You have school tomorrow, too." The boys called Scott on his shit.

"Yeah, but we're graduating at the end of the week." Scott told him snootily, crossing his arms over his chest and sticking his nose in the air. "You, on the other hand, have finales tomorrow." Scott gave into his immature desire to stick his tongue out at them.

The looks of horror that crossed their faces were priceless. Brett's nose was screwed in distaste and Liam was anxiously running his hand through his hair. "Ugh, why would you remind us?" "Oh no, I totally forgot about them."

Brett turned his reproachful look on his best friend, "Seriously?"

"What?" Liam snapped, "I haven't studied all weekend."

"You have straight A's." Brett pointed out. Funny enough, both of them had way better grades than anything Scott had his entire school career.

"How do think I got them." Liam argued. He really didn't have anything to worry about, as far as Scott was concerned. Liam was what you'd call an over achiever. He had to be the best academically, in lacrosse, and as a werewolf. His need to find acceptance through success most likely caused his anger issues and overall douche-baggery. This need to succeed, in turn, was the way he tried to make up for his personality issues. It was a viscous cycle. Scott's heart went out to the poor kid. They'd actually gotten close in the months since he'd bit Liam. Maybe that was why Scott could put up with Jackson more. Jackson had similar inferiority issues.

Scott shook himself from his thoughts. They were wasting daylight. "Why don't you guys go over to Mason's house to study? Think of it as a protection detail. He's the only one of us who is doesn't know Peter is at large." That caught Liam's attention. He dragged Brett out of the house in record time, totally breezing past Scott.

"Speaking of which, I have to get ready for my tests, too." Ken nervously fidgeted with his keys. "With all the excitement that has been going on, I haven't even written the test questions. " Mr. Yukimura was the History teacher at Beacon Hills High School.

Ms. Morell followed Kira's parents out, "I have to prepare for finals week, as well."

"What do you have to prepare for?" Erica asked, snidely, "You're the guidance counselor."

Morell looked down her nose at the she-wolf, "I'll have you know, this is my busiest week of the year. There are stressed and lost seniors who are worried about going away to college, or not having a plan for the future. There are the ones who are depressed that they are leaving school, their friends, and their childhood behind. Then, we have the partiers who show up inebriated to school." She really got into her rant and advanced on a retreating Erica. It was highly entertaining, watching the girl get her ass handed to her. "Then, there are the students who are going through nervous break downs because of finales. I have to deal with performance drugs, the selling of luck charms, and cheating. There are more fights and suicide attempts in this one week then all of the rest of the year, put together."

"Sorry." Erica threw in the towel. "You provide a very necessary service to the student body and you are under-appreciated."

O0o.o0O

"So…" Scott felt a bit awkward, talking to the broken version of his best friend.

"So…" Genim seemed just as weirded out. They were heading to the care home Peter had stayed at as an invalid. It was their first stop of the night. The scouting parties had conferred after all four teams started heading towards the school. They decided to split the map of Beacon Hills by the compass; seemed more logical that way.

Scott wasn't the greatest at planning in advance. Usually, Stiles, Derek, or Lydia would make the plans. Isaac, Allison, and Kira were good at the whole on-the-fly assessing thing. The alpha just wasn't very good with tactics, or research, or leading people in general. His ego was taking some pretty hard hits recently. He was pretty lost with it all. Not like he had to deal with this particular issue often. "So," Scott tried again to make conversation, "you and Peter are pretty close?"

"Not really." Genim shrugged his shoulders, not committing to anything. "He's not the greatest person in the world, but he's a lot better than others."

"What does that mean?" Scott asked, bewildered by the vagueness of that comment. There was obviously a lot of emotion there.

Stiles snapped a stick that he'd picked up earlier as he answered, "Peter can be a manipulative asshole, but he's nothing like how fucked up your Peter is."

"That's not saying a lot." Scott huffed a laugh at the understatement.

Genim shared a grin before a frown took its place. "Nah, I suppose not. It's like your Peter never got back his sanity from the fire; like he's still broken. Our Peter is different. He really cares about the pack, even if he can be a sarcastic jerk. It's just that we've had a rough year." Genim sighed.

Scott didn't know what to say. He was usually really good with emotions, that is, when they were out in the open. But this was different. He didn't know what Genim had gone through and he sure as heck couldn't tell him, 'Everything is going to be alright.' For one thing, that sounded like a cheap cliché. For another, it seemed to Scott that nothing was going to be 'alright' to this version of Stiles for a very long time. So he let the silence go on awhile.

"To answer your question, we used to be." Genim finally continued. "When my Scott first got turned, Peter was courting Melissa. Truth be told; it was kinda creepy." Scott shuddered, agreeing wholeheartedly. "Anyway, it settled into something normal for a while. He'd taught us some stuff and he was around more often than your mom or my dad. He treated us like family, which I think helped him recover, or at least pretend that the fire hadn't happened.

"Then, the bastard bit me and went and got himself killed. That was pretty rough. I was really angry and he wasn't around to be angry at. So I took it out on Derek. Then, Peter came back and Lydia died. Y- A bunch of other stuff happened, and I dealt with it. I'm pretty sure that Laura is technically his second but, sometimes; he acted like I was it. We got closer, I guess. But after the thing with the Darach, it was like he broke again. He was like Isaac, near the end, but with enough responsibility to keep from getting himself killed. Again."

"It's hard not having him around. And it's just plain weird dealing with you." Genim confided as they crunched through the leaf litter.

"Yeah," Scott huffed, "I never thought about being an alpha until it just kind of happened. I'm sure it was a surprise to you, too."

"Uh, yeah," Genim said, scanning the path ahead of them. "How'd that happen, by the way? You never really said."

"Oh, well, I'm not really sure. To be honest, I don't really know." Scott said scratching the back of his head. He was embarrassed about the whole 'true alpha' thing. In his own opinion, he felt like he was making a bit of a mess of it, so far. "We'd just got everyone back from the alpha pack and we were still dealing with the Darach. Derek did something where he was losing his alpha powers and I kind of just walked into an ash circle. Poof. Insta-Alpha." Scott said nonchalantly, trying to play it off.

It took Scott a minute to realize that Genim had stopped walking and he was just standing there, gaping. Scott, ideally, wondered if he could toss a piece of popcorn just so that to could hit that punching bag thing at the back of the other wolf's throat. Wouldn't that make him vomit? Maybe he shouldn't then.

"You're a true alpha?" Genim asked, incredulous.

"You don't have to sound so surprised." Scott said, pretending to be a little hurt. Actually he was a little hurt but it sounded pretty ridiculous in his own head.

Genim started pacing. "Do you know how rare that is? It's like…one, maybe, every century. Although, some werewolf historians suggest that a few alphas that have inherited the position without killing could have been true alpha's. They were just content to be followers instead of leaders, while their previous alpha reigned. So, it _could_ happen more often than is strictly documented. Although, the other side of the argument is that if the wolf was content to follow, then that took them out of the running for true alpha anyways." Ah, there was the Stiles Scott knew and loved. Even as a broken werewolf, some people never changed.

"But, buddy, it seems like your circumstances make a pretty compelling argument for those who are content to follow until needed. No wonder Deucalion was so put out when he met me. I am totally awesome but I am no True Alpha." Yup. Definitely Stiles.

"What do you mean-" Scott started before the wind changed direction and he got a familiar sent.

"Do you smell that?" Genim asked Scott, getting sent at the same time. With that, the two bound on the trail, bypassing the recovery home completely.


	8. Chapter 7: More Angst

Peter's scent was strong enough that the boys could tell he'd been around the recovery home for quite a while. There was something wrong with that bit of information and it tugged at Scott's attention. Unfortunately, he didn't have a lot of time to think about it because the two werewolves were chasing after the fresh lead.

Scott and Genim were flying down the wooded path. They might have been tempted to wolf out if they hadn't been going towards town. Dread filled Scott's stomach when he realized where they were heading. He could care less about the town, other than it was his territory and filled with innocent people. No, he had realized that they were running towards Beacon Hills Hospital; the place his mom was currently working.

Scott stilled and pulled out his phone. Genim stopped a few paces up the trail. The alpha hit the speed dial for the sheriff, waiting for the answering, "Hello."

"Parish, is John with you right now?" Scott rushed out.

The deputy wasn't fazed by the call at all. "Yeah, he's right here." Scott could actually hear the sheriff on the other end asking what was going on.

"I have reason to believe that Peter and Kate might be watching the human members of the pack." Scott might be slow at some things but he knew when a timely warning could help save lives. He also knew the value of backup. "We're heading towards the hospital and I think Peter might already be there."

In the background, Scott could hear the sheriff talking to Parish, "Tell, them we're on our way." "He says-

"We'll see you there." Scott said, cutting off Parish. Poor guy. But it wasn't like they had a whole lot of time. The two wolves picked up the pace and were running all out again.

"What was that?" Genim asked, anger lacing his words.

Scott growled at the other version of his best friend, informing him that he didn't like that tone. "I was calling for back up." He told the other boy, calmly.

"Why'd you call the cops? You could have called Derek or Isaac. Now the place will be crawling with pigs." Genim still had a bit of anger there, but he was noticeably holding back.

What really surprised Scott was Genim's attitude towards the officers. Stiles, and he assumed Genim, grew up at the station. Those officers he'd just called pigs were like aunts and uncles to the boy. "The cops can get there the fastest." Scott said simply.

Stiles grunted, "You're gonna spook Peter. We're going to lose the trail."

Scott continued, a little angry himself, "My mom might be in danger. I don't care if we 'spook' Peter and I trust the sheriff; he's Pack too. Don't you trust your dad."

"No, I don't!" Genim blurted out, warming up to the argument. The wolf's anger was obviously getting in the way of his filter. Genim must have realized what he said because he immediately clammed up.

That sounded like a story to Scott. The question was, did they have the time to address it? Could they afford not too? God, he was getting sick of those questions. Finally, he decided that if he was going to go into a potentially dangerous situation with a loose cannon, Scott might as well find out what would set the other werewolf off. "Tell me about it." It felt like cheating to use his alpha voice, but that didn't stop him from using it.

"Some things happened when I 'came out' to my dad." Genim grumbled. Gone was the rage and sorrow was left over. Sorrow and resignation.

"Wait, you're gay?" Scott asked, totally surprised.

Genim let out a strangled laugh and shook his head. "The whole wolf thing, Scott. When I came out about being a werewolf."

"Oh," Scott said, understanding the- what was that again- metaphor of the situation. Maybe it was a slimily; some sort of comparison thingy? "Good, it'd be weird if you were suddenly gay."

Genim frowned, "Hey, I could be gay."

"Are you?" Scott asked, surprised, then started back peddling, "I mean, it's cool if you are. I wouldn't start treating you different or anything. I mean, I don't really care with Danny and Ethan-"

"Scott."

"-There's Mason too. And, and I think Liam might be…"

"Scott!" Genim yelled, finally getting the alpha's attention. "Dude, focus."

"Right," Scott said, still loping towards the hospital, "What were we talking about again?"

Genim suppressed a chuckle at the alternate version of his childhood friend. "We were talking about when I told my dad about all this," He said, gesturing to world at large. "The craziness that is Beacon Hills."

"So what 'things' happened?" Scott asked, finally catching up.

Genim huffed a sigh and scratched his head. Scott briefly thought that was an awkward move to make while running. It kinda reminded him of Stile's clumsiness but Genim never faltered in his pace. "That's a long story."

Scott was dying to know but time was of the essence, "Cliffnote's version."

"The Sheriff kinda stumbled upon a murder." Genim Started.

Scott nodded, there were a lot of supernatural murders in Beacon Hills. "What did it?"

"Me." Genim said simply.

Scott did a double take as the horror of what the other wolf had said sunk in. He ran into a tree for his trouble. "Ooph!"

"Scott, buddy, are you ok?" Genim had to jog back to where Scott had fallen into some leaf litter.

Scott had recovered his lost wind, but he hadn't moved still, considering what the wolf had just told him. Maybe Kate and Peter weren't the only psychos running around. But this was Stiles, a different, scarier version of Stiles. Not quite as scary as Nogitsu-Stiles. But a Stiles, none the less. Stiles wouldn't just kill someone without a good reason. Although, there were some things he had threatened Liam with when the boy had gotten bit. But, that was a relatively good reason. Still, he should probably let Genim explain before he came to any conclusions. Good idea.

Scott let Genim help him back up to standing position before he growled out, "Explain."

Genim looked a little resentful at the command, but complied. Not like he really had a choice when Scott used his alpha voice. "A hunter killed one of my friends. I killed her back."

The way Genim said 'her' raised quite a few red flags, but Scott let it be. Killing a hunter who killed a friend seemed like a perfectly good reason to kill someone. On to the next question, "How did you dad find out?"

"What can I say, it was sloppy." Genim shrugged. "I didn't have time to plan it out; it was all reaction, at the time. Anyway, Peter wasn't around and I was dragged out of there before I could think straight, let alone clean up the crime scene."

"So your dad found evidence of you killing her?" Scott asked. They were nearing the hospital. He had to wrap up the interview fast.

"No, they thought an animal had attacked her… inside a bar. But my prints on the door put me at that the scene of the crime." Genim said nonchalantly. "The sheriff put two and two together and wasn't happy about it."

"And?" Scott prodded. He definitely didn't miss how Genim kept referring to the man who raised him by his title.

"And, he kicked me out." Genim shrugged.

"He what!?" Scott was incredulous.

Genim's eyes had taken on a shininess but his tone was filled with anger, maybe a little pain. "We had words and he told me, 'you're no son of mine.'"

"Melissa and Peter took me in, it was a rough time." Genim took a big breath. "After that, there was that Derek thing and we never got to mending that fence."

"Jeez," Was the only thing Scott could think to say.

"Yeah, well, my life is pretty fucked up." Genim told Scott, "Let's not let yours get there."

Scott nodded emphatically. They were at the hospital and he spotted a cruiser parked by the drop off area. "Are you going to be cool working with Stiles' dad?"

Genim seemed a little confused at the differentiation, then it seemed to click. This sheriff was not his father and things hadn't gone down the same way. He nodded once to tell Scott he understood. This was good because couldn't afford to babysit the dimension traveler around the cops; they had more important things to deal with.

The wolves walked, instead of ran, through the glass doors so as not to draw any unwanted attention. However, Scott wanted to sprint towards his mom. The hall definitely smelt of Peter, as if he'd been there a few times recently. That sicko was stalking Melissa, again.

"Boys, over here." John called them over to where he, Melissa, and Parish were huddled away from the nurse's station. "I sent a deputy to watch Lydia's house and another to watch Liam's friend, Mason's home. I figured the Nakamuras and Argents didn't need the help."

"Thanks, I appreciate it." Scott told the sheriff, sincerely. He gave his mom a hug, reassuring himself that she was alright. It looked like Genim wanted to make sure of her safety for himself as well. Melissa wasn't someone who turned down hugs so she grabbed him when he hesitated. Scott ignored them as he told the sheriff, "We caught Peter's scent heading this way. It looks like he's been here awhile."

"You think he's stalking Melissa again?" The sheriff asked, all business.

"Yeah," Scott said, subtly sniffing the air, "Maybe a week. But he comes here often; the place reeks of him." Scott sniffed again. There was something off about Peter's scent.

"Have you seen him around lately?" Parish asked Melissa.

Melissa, who was embarrassingly wiping the clinging leaf bits off of Scott's back, shook her head. "No, I haven't seen that creep in a long time. I didn't even know that he was still in town. Hang on… I have felt like someone has been watching me. I thought it was left over jitters from when that fox demon was staying in the hospital." The fact that Melissa was still having the heebie-jeebies from the Nogitsune a year later said something about how disturbing that monster was.

"Where have you felt like this?" Genim asked her.

"Near the MRI machine. That's why I thought it was just memories." Melissa said, crossing her arms around herself.

"I know where that is. Come on Genim." Scott said, gesturing for the other wolf to follow. The Sheriff and Parish said something about asking the other nurses if they'd seen the 'suspect'.

O0o.o0O

Scott had easily led them to the MRI room where he had thought his best friend had been dying. One of those things that you never quite get over, let alone forget. He didn't get to reminisce for long because Genim took off down the hall. "What are you doing?"

"He's here!" Genim shouted back. Now that Scott thought about it, the scent had gotten stronger. He lost sight of Genim as he went around a corner. When he barreled around the same corner, he could see that Genim was now chasing someone and that someone was actually running away. Woot! They'd found Peter. Although, dashing down the crowded corridor seemed like a bad idea.

Scott found himself avoiding doctors, nurses, and patients. Not to mention, they were probably being caught on camera. This was going to be hard to explain later. That is, if there was a later. Scott was running into gurneys and chairs. Where the heck was his werewolf grace. He was going to trip over something and kill himself.

Genim and Peter, on the other hand, looked like they were doing parkour. Peter would go leaping over a bed and Genim, easy as pie, would slide under it and be back up to running on the other side. Meanwhile, Scott would have to go around the bed as well the angry orderlies . He was dropping further and further behind the two. God, Scott realized, he had to work out more. Not just the normal day to day running away from and chasing monsters; but an actual regiment. This was getting ridiculous. He wondered whether Derek would have been able to keep up. The older werewolf practically lived at the gym.

Up ahead, Scott watch as Peter clawed some poor guy's IV open. Genim used the bar to swing around the corner after Peter. Scott put on some speed to catch up. He was horrified as he lost traction and slid on the slippery tile. Oh. That was why Peter did that. Caution; wet floor. Scott tried to correct his balance and his feet went out from under him. He groaned as he slammed into the opposite wall. Thanks Genim, for the heads up, he thought sarcastically. Scott slipped and slid his way up and continued to run after the pair.

Scott made it around yet another corner in time to see the back stairwell close. Screw this. He hit the down button on the elevator. The was a soft ding after a relatively short wait. The door started opening and Scott climbed through, tapping a few times on the 'close door' button. He hit the button for the ground floor and waited.

Scott was, at first, grateful that he was alone in the elevator. Just him and his thoughts. And the annoyingly soft elevator music. Why did elevators always have soft jazz playing? What was the point? Annoy people so they used the stairs. One one-thousand, two one- thousand, three- Scott shifted uncomfortably, so that he was leaning against a hand rail. He could now feel his bumps and bruises for the second time that day. When was the elevator going to get- Ding. Oh.

As the door opened, Scott was out in a flash, heading for the stairwell. He could hear growls and a thud coming from behind the door, which made Scott glad that he hadn't missed them. Go him, cutting off the escape route. He was about to turn the handle, when the solid steel door slammed into his face. He felt his nose burst on impact. The pain blacked out his vision and he let the door fully swing him away from the opening. Today was not his day. He felt blood gush down his chin and felt someone breeze past him.

There was a yelped, "Scott!" in the distance. Scott tried to open his swelling eyes to get a better picture of what was going on. He saw an upside down Stiles run out of the hospital. Were those claws? Must be Genim. This was going to be hard to explain to the cameras. Does one talk to cameras? His brain was awful foggy. Melissa was there holding a towel to his nose, making him lean forward. This was good because Scott wasn't too thrilled with the taste of his blood running down the back of his throat.

Ugh. Scott had just let Peter escape for the second time that day. At least he hadn't broken another rib. Speaking of which. "Mom." She was grumbling under her breath; apparently complain about supernatural dangers. "Mom," Scott nasally said again, finally getting her attention, "I need you to set my nose, now."

"Sure," She said. Melissa understood the need to be quick about it. She took the towel away and placed a hand on either side of his nose. He took a breath and, without any warning, there was a painful pop and then a lack of pressure. It felt good to have his nose back in position; but it was still bleeding, so he took the towel from her.

The sheriff was running towards him. "What happened?"

"Peter escaped." Scott informed, with the towel to his nose.

"Again?" That was Parish.

"And my son?" John Stilinsky was worried.

Scott wondered how Genim would take that question. Technically, Genim was, strictly speaking, not the sheriff's son. But it didn't seem like John cared a whole lot about technicality. However, there was the whole estrangement with Genim's version of his dad. Damn, was that confusing. Scott figured he'd just answer the man before he got throttled. "He went after him."

The sheriff whipped his head towards the entrance and looked like he was going to run after his son. Maybe John didn't realize that, as a werewolf, Genim could handle himself. Heck, Genim could handle the situation a lot better than Scott could. He was sitting with proof dribbling from his nose. He figured the sheriff was still used to his completely human son. Stiles had gotten his ass kicked quite a few times in the line of duty. An image of a broken and beaten Sitles, after his stint with Gerard, came to mind. The sheriff totally had a right to be concerned, Scott thought.

They needn't worry, though. At that moment, Genim was striding up the driveway towards the hospital. John met him the entry and caught the werewolf in a hug. "Are you ok?" The sheriff asked. Genim only nodded looking decidedly uncomfortable. "Don't do that again! What were you thinking? What have I always told you about back up? If you leave you partner, you or he could wind up dead." John continued lecturing the teen.

Genim was a little worse for wear. He sported a few scratches here and there from the fight Scott had heard earlier. The wounds were healing up rather quickly, leaving no evidence but the holes and blood stains on his clothes. That reminded Scott of the towel against his nose. He took a few cautious breaths. Yep, all better.

"What the hell is going on?" A security Officer asked, marching up to the group. His rage was barely concealed over his professionalism.

"I'm Sheriff John Stilinsky and this is my Deputy, Parish." The sheriff said, taking over as if the man couldn't guess from their uniforms, "Who might you be?"

The man mumbled, "Bill Suttor, head of security."

"Good. Then you should know of our attempts at finding a suspect on the hospital premises." The sheriff said, cutting him off. "We been asking patients and employees if they have seen a man matching the description of a stalker we had a problem with a few years back. This man had targeted Ms. McCall previously and, last time he was in town, he abducted a teenage girl." Somewhere Lydia probably knew someone was talking about her. Creepy banshee powers and all that. She was not going to be happy.

The security guard look a little shocked but he seemed like he was not going to be put off. "That still doesn't excuse two teenagers running around the hospital," He glared at Scott and Genim, "disturbing delicate procedure."

"You're right." John answered. The boys glanced at the sheriff, shocked. He returned a stern look back at them. "This is Scott McCall, Melissa's son and his best friend, my son Stiles. They must have overheard discussion about the stalker's reappearance and come by to make sure she was ok. Believe me, I will be talking to them when we get home."

Bill seemed mollified that he was being taken seriously, "However, these boys did run into the suspect. Which is what I believe was the cause of the earlier ruckus. Now that we know he's here, we need to start implementing some security measures. First off, I am going to need to see your security tapes from the past week as well as today. Maybe we should discuss this further in your office." The sheriff nodded with his head at the boys.

"Yes, of course." Bill said, leading the two officers to a nearby office. That was it, the proof was unshakable; Sheriff Stilinsky was a bad ass. Master of spin. Holy crap, was that some fast talking. Scott wanted to be him when he grew up.

"Maybe you should head home, before Mr. Suttor sees you again." Melissa said to the dazed teen wolves. "If you wait a minute, I'll give you a lift to the house. I'm sure John will work it so that I need to be in protective custody."

O0o.o0O

AN: So what did you all think? Genim is an angsty SOB, right? Too dark, too whiny? And how about Scott? Hes a little off his game. Many thanks to Kin my beta. Once again she took time out of her busy schedule to edit my crappy writing. Now she just has the other three chapters to do. LOL. It will probably be more by the time she gets around to editing the next one.


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